I have a new radiator, spal fans and waterpump to install this weekend on my 68. I've been waiting for "just the right time" to replace the heads and cam for over a year.
I'm leaning towards doing the heads and cam this weekend in conjunction with the rad/wp swap since I'll be that far into it.
How many hours do you think I'm looking at for doing heads and cam swap in the car?

Assuming you have quality time with no one disturbing you I'd say 3-5 hours....Let me know if you need any help, I only live a couple thousand miles away!.....You can do the cam and I'll handle the heads, OK?

3-5 hrs? Badbird, you are hired!

Accessories and bracket setup will have a big effect on the job. I did a cam swap on my '67 with factory A/C and original bracketry in 7 hrs. This included some time to port match the intake manifold and reset the distributor which I reinstalled a tooth off . I opened the hood at 5PM and closed it at midnight. Doing the heads would add probably 2-3 hrs depending on how easily the gasket surfaces cleaned up and whether or not you decide to chase the head bolt threads.

If you are going to do a water pump and radiator anyway, it would be an excellent time to do a cam/head swap rather than do all the same work again later. No reason it couldn't be done in a weekend if you have all the parts on hand.

I have some old flat rate manuals at work, I'll look it up and get back tomorrow.

Yeah Ron, you're hired! I'll buy your ticket and beer you do the work! LOL
Uninterrupted time, that's funny! Between my wife and 2yo son, yeah, I have lot's of uninterrupted time. I'm on the fence...

Yeah Ron, you're hired! I'll buy your ticket and beer you do the work! LOL
Uninterrupted time, that's funny! Between my wife and 2yo son, yeah, I have lot's of uninterrupted time. I'm on the fence...
give the wife a $20 bill and tell her to hit some yard sales, and let the 2 year old "help" you.
never too young to learn about cars.

lol, he love's to help. It's just more babysitting than wrenching. I'm close to doing it.

My labor time was based on the fact that the engine was all prepped up and ready for the actual cam and head installation!.....Without quality time and being disturbed by your family, figure on a weekend then!.....If you were local, I'd gladly help you out, free of charge!!.....Just remember the ice cold beer and a large pizza with double cheese and extra pepperoni!!

My old Mitchell '63-'73 flat rate manual gives 8.3 hrs to change the cam on a smallblock and 11.3 hrs on a big block in a '67-'69 Camaro. No mention of extra accessories.

For head gasket replacement, it gives 7.5 hrs on a smallblock and 8.8 hrs on a big block with some extra time for various accessories, a little over an hour if you have A/C, PS, and an air pump.

There is a lot of overlap in the two jobs. Once you have it torn far enough down to change the cam, all thats left to pull the heads is the exhaust manifolds/headers and the heads themselves.

Eville, whichever way you decide to go, the weekend is here. Good luck and happy wrenching!

Well, she's torn down. Gone is the old radiator, WP, alt, A/C, dist, intake, v/c's.
Tomorrow morning, I'll get to the headers, oil pan, timing cover and heads, then head out for a parts run. Come back do some cleaning and start the reassembly. I'm shooting for a mid-sunday cam break in.

Another good day, pulled the old 882 heads, cam and timing gear, installed the new VooDoo 60104 cam, double roller timing chain and E'brock RPM heads, adjusted the valves, reinstalled the pan and timing cover and still had time to go out to a nice dinner with my wife and son. Without my 2 year olds help, I'm sure I could have gotten the intake installed, had it primed and dropped the dizzy, but I never imagined a 26 month old would want to spend ALL day in the garage learning about "daddy's nice car". Excellent day.

Tomorrow, install intake, prime it, dizzy, plug wires, headers, wp, a/c, radiator and break that cam in! Maybe by 2 or 3 pm the neighbors will have figured out what my son and I have been doing to the camaro all weekend!

More tomorrow.

Excellent... hope you were out driving it this afternoon.

Not quite, had the usual delays but started breaking in the cam just after 8pm. Had only one small incident when a plug wire caught fire from contact with the header about 14 minutes in to the break-in process. A new plug wire and I was back in action.
I still need to put a tune on it, (timing and carb, etc) but what a difference the added compression and cam make on idle sound and throttle response...
I can't wait to get her out for a test drive!