While there are only a few...
While there are only a few specialty tools needed to perform such a big operation of swapping cylinder heads and camshaft, it's small tools like this two-jaw gear puller that most guys forget to have on hand when they begin.
Bump And Grunt
The Crane PowerMax cam we chose is designed for towing and good gas mileage. It's not big by any standards, and that should translate to tons of torque with very good wear characteristics for the associated parts like valve springs.
Crane H-260-2 PowerMax hydraulic flat-tappet cam PN 133901 (PN 133902 includes lifters with cam kit)
| Advertised duration: | Int 260 | | Exh 272 inches |
| Duration @ 0.050: | Int 204 | | Exh 216 inches |
| Lift: | Int 0.484 | | Exh 0.502 inches |
| Lobe Separation: | 112 |
 We like to double-up two,...  We like to double-up two, box-end wrenches as shown to get extra leverage when removing stubborn parts like the heater hose outlet on the intake manifold. It's always best to remove such fittings while the intake is still bolted to the heads for better leverage. |  To clean off the years of...  To clean off the years of stuck head gaskets we used a Standard Abrasives disc. Then we checked both deck surfaces with a straightedge to be sure the block wasn't warped. |  The lifter valley didn't show...  The lifter valley didn't show signs of long-term oil sludge, so we concluded that the engine was not the original powerplant. We figured that this mill with low-compression flat-top pistons was swapped in some time ago. |
| BRUTE POWER |
| | BEFORE | AFTER |
| RPM | HP | TQ | HP | TQ |
| 2,600 | 160 | 324 | 208 | 400 |
| 2,800 | 166 | 312 | 210 | 395 |
| 3,000 | 175 | 307 | 217 | 381 |
| 3,200 | 182 | 298 | 229 | 377 |
| 3,400 | 187 | 288 | 241 | 373 |
| 3,600 | 186 | 271 | 256 | 373 |
| 3,800 | 188 | 259 | 266 | 367 |
| 4,000 | 185 | 242 | 273 | 358 |
| 4,200 | 185 | 231 | 275 | 344 |
| 4,400 | 177 | 212 | 280 | 333 |
| 4,600 | 169 | 194 | 273 | 312 |
| 4,800 | 157 | 172 | 272 | 297 |
| 5,000 | 138 | 144 | 266 | 280 |
| PEAK | 188 | 324 | 280 | 400 |