Camshaft Dow Pin

Hey all. 

I’m currently working on a Holden 308 and have come across a hurdle. I need to remove the down pin from a carburetor version of a 308 cam and swap it with the current shorter one in and EFI cam. I’m wanting to run a mechanical fuel pump but the current dow pin is too short as it’s not required to be long for EFI motors. 

Have any of you removed a Dow pin from a cam? It’s in there tight, not sure on applying heat directly on to the cam with a flame, worried about metal embrittlement. Have thought about trying to freeze the Dow pin using a butane can or something of the like. 

Curious to hear your thoughts. 

Thanks, Urchy87

Does this help

 

Here is another tack

I assume that you have already tried just grabbing it with vice grips and butchering it out ?

Paul

Years back I had a customer with a 350 Chev which had sheered the dowel for the fuel pump cam. I couldn't get the stub out, so I just rotated the cam 90 deg, drilled and tapped a new hole in the cam boss and screwed a 5/16 high tensile bolt into it with lock-tite. Cut the bolt off to length and away it went.
Ran in a high-performance speed boat for several years.
This may work for you.

Wouldn't the dowel pin be case hardened making it harder to drill?

Dowel pins usually are very hard, as the bloke in Lang's video shows. As the fuel pump operating cam is just a tin can so to speak and it doesn't need to be timed it can be located in any position.
The boss on the end of the camshaft where to pump cam is, is also case hardened, as it forms part of the front cam bearing, but the centre section/face is not, so no problem to drill and tap. In fact, I did this repair in situe with hand tools, at night in the shed.

Thanks Wee-Allis.

I was more wondering about the first video where the bloke made a pin and then drilled it.  I presume it wasn't case hardened .

I imagine, "you'd"  need to grind the top off a case hardened pin before trying to bore the centre and then fill with oil and punch it out.

And then, the wider the bore, the less psi is generated from the hammer. There must be an optimum bore size the lift the pin versus the compression PSI when the pin is hammered.

But thinking about it some more, how can "you" drill though the case hardening at the other end of the pin?  You cant get to it and grind the hardening off.....

or am I missing something?