I thought I'd try and see how degreeing the cam with the head off in prep of having the engine apart soon. I have some variance between the intake and exhaust that I think should be mirrored (straight pattern) that I attribute to not having the lash adjusters locked down enough. I put some hose clamps around the top of the lash adjusters that the followers would sit on, but it was not perfect. After I had the cam housing and everything together I opened my degree wheel kit and noticed there are light weight springs in the kit, so when I do the other head/cam I'll use the light springs (and I think some o-rings) to further reduce the compression of the lash adjusters. The goal will be to pin down the intake and exhaust opening points at minimum and mark those points on a sprocket in relation to the dowel. Then I can use the degree wheel on the crank and reference those points on the sprocket.
I had some issues locking down the lash adjusters. I wrapped hose clamps around the top to limit how much the follower can compress it. When I got my degree wheel out I noticed it comes with simple weak springs, so when I check the good head/cam I'll use the weak springs and maybe add some stiff o-rings to the hose clamps to keep the lash adjusters from collapsing. Or maybe I'll modify/ internally shim two spare lash adjusters.
You can kind of see the sharpie marks I made on the sprocket. I'll have to do some math if I want to convert the crank degrees to the cam degree's, but as I mentioned, if I can at least mark out the opening and closing points on the sprocket in relation to the dowel pin I will have something to work with.
