[Slonaker]

I changed the cam on my '86 without pulling the engine. I had to, as MylilBowTie said, cut the center of the core support to do it.

I cut it as low as I could, in just one place, and bent it up out of the way. When I was done, I used a small piece of sheetmetal and sheetmetal screws to hold it back together. I painted it black, and you can't tell it was ever cut. It is also surprisingly strong.

As far as the A/C goes, I unbolted the hard lines for the condenser from the fender. That allowed enough flex in the lines for me to lift the condenser up high enough to clear the cam. I was working by myself, so I tied it in place on the core support with a piece of string. It actually worked out really well.

It might be easier, as someone else said, to just pull the engine. If you have some help, a hoist, and an engine stand, that might be the better option. I chose not to because I was doing all of the work by myself, and because my original plan was to do a cam swap and nothing else.

If I was doing it again, I would probably pull the engine. While I had mine apart, I kept looking at stuff and thinking "It will never be any easier than this to replace/clean/paint that part." I ended up doing all of the gaskets, new water pump, fuel pump, motormounts, brake lines, sandblasting and painting the brackets, and all kinds of other stuff. If I had known I was going to do that much to it, I would have just pulled the thing out and worked on it in the garage instead of leaning over the fenders anmd crawling under it all the time.

Slonaker