Hey, after replacing the headgasket and whatnot, I have the camshaft back on. When I put on the brackets that hold on the camshaft, I can't rotate it by hand. I am using liberal amounts of motor assembly grease. Am I doing something wrong or is this entirely normal?

 

You have installed the cam bearing caps and torqued them down? If so, you will have to use a wrench to rotate the cam. As you rotate it, you are opening and closing the valves which are under very high spring tension.

 

Yeah, I have the caps on but not the rockers yet. I figured it should be easy to rotate without the rockers.

 

What engine are you doing this on? I havent messed with the 4 cylinders before, not sure if they are interference or not.. if so I would be careful.

 

22r. Like I said rockers aren't on so the valves shouldn't be an issue.

 

I see, yeah sorry I am not familiar, hopefully someone else will jump in who knows more about those. Good luck, dont force it!

 

The cam should turn relatively easily before the rockers are mounted.

Something is not right.

 

Okay, so I found out what I was doing wrong... I had the damn caps on backwards! Now I feel really dumb.