Hellcat Camshaft Replacement: Tools, Torque and Sequence
TL;DR: The supercharged 6.2 Hellcat is a pushrod, overhead-valve V8 with a single camshaft in the block, hydraulic roller lifters and shaft-mounted rocker assemblies — so the cam sits under the supercharger, under the lifter valley, and behind the front cover. That means the job is not really a cam job; it is a top-end teardown with a cam swap in the middle of it. The three things that decide the outcome are keeping the lifters captured when the cam comes out, getting enough clearance at the front of the engine to withdraw the cam without scoring the bearings, and degreeing and torquing the cam drive exactly as the service information specifies. Plan the valvetrain package — springs, pushrod length, piston-to-valve clearance — before the first bolt comes out, not after.
Understand what you are getting into
A Hellcat cam swap is frequently discussed as if it were a weekend job because the engine is a pushrod V8. The architecture is simple; the access is not.
On this engine the supercharger occupies the space an intake manifold would occupy on a naturally aspirated Hemi. It is bolted to the cylinder heads, carries its own intercooler circuit with a separate coolant pump and heat exchanger, and sits directly over the lifter valley. Nothing in the valley is reachable until it is off the engine. Beneath it are the fuel rails and port injectors, the coolant crossover, and the wiring that has to be labelled and moved rather than yanked.
At the other end, the camshaft has to come out the front of the block, and it needs roughly its own length in clear space to do it. In a Challenger or Charger engine bay that clearance does not exist as the car sits. Depending on the chassis and your equipment, that means putting the front end into the service position, removing the radiator and cooling stack, or pulling the engine. Decide which of those you are doing before you start, because it changes the tool list, the fluid list and the time estimate substantially.
This is also the moment to confirm the specifics of your engine against the factory service information: how the cam drive is configured, whether the cam sprocket bolt and the crank damper bolt are single-use torque-to-yield fasteners, and what the front cover sealing procedure is. Those details vary across the Gen III Hemi family and across model years, and guessing at them is how a good cam ends up in a damaged engine.
One thing that is not in doubt: this is a pushrod engine with lifters, not an overhead-cam engine with followers, and it has one cam, not four. Parts and procedures written for a Coyote or Modular Ford do not cross over.
Parts, tools and fluids
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Camshaft | Choose the grind for the actual combination — supercharger, pulley, injectors, converter and calibration — not for a peak number. On a boosted engine, overlap and exhaust duration behave very differently than they do naturally aspirated. Browse camshafts and complete cam and valvetrain stage kits as matched packages rather than assembling one part at a time. |
| Lifters and lifter guide trays | The hydraulic roller lifters ride in guide trays in the valley. Trays go brittle with heat and age. If the engine has miles on it, replace lifters and trays with the cam rather than running a used wear pattern on a new lobe. |
| Valve springs and retainers | Most aftermarket grinds need more spring than the factory package. Check installed height, coil bind clearance at maximum lift, and retainer-to-seal clearance. Valve springs fitted without checking those three things fail early and take the cam with them. |
| Pushrods | Verify length after the heads and rockers are reassembled, using a checking pushrod and a wipe pattern on the valve tip. Order the final pushrods once you have measured, not before. |
| Rocker shaft assemblies | Gen III Hemi heads use shaft-mounted rockers. Inspect the shafts, bolts and rocker arms for bearing wear and elongated bolt holes. |
| Timing set and front cover hardware | Chain, sprockets, tensioner and the cam thrust plate all live behind the cover. Replace wear items while you are in there — see timing chains, gears and tensioners. |
| Gaskets and seals | Supercharger-to-head gaskets, intercooler and coolant seals, valve cover gaskets, front cover seal and crank seal. Order the full set up front from gaskets and seals and from the supercharger parts shelf; a single missing seal stops the job dead. |
| Fluids | Engine oil and filter, engine coolant, and the separate intercooler-circuit coolant, all to the specification in the service manual. |
| Tools | Torque wrench with an angle gauge, damper puller and installer, degree wheel and dial indicator, checking pushrod, lifter retention tool or magnetic pickup, plastic scrapers, and a long cam installation handle that threads into the cam nose. |
| Shop labour | Independent performance shops commonly book a supercharged Hemi cam package in the low double-digit labour-hour range, more if the front end has to come apart or the engine comes out. |
If you are shopping the whole job in one place, start from the Hellcat 6.2 supercharged parts collection so you only see parts catalogued for this engine family.
Disassembly, in order
1. Depressurise and drain. Disconnect the battery. Relieve fuel pressure, then drain the engine coolant and the intercooler circuit separately. Label every connector and hose as it comes off; there are far more of them on this engine than on any naturally aspirated Hemi.
2. Supercharger off. Remove the belt, the inlet ducting and throttle body, the intercooler lines and pump connections, the fuel rails and injectors, then the supercharger fasteners. Loosen the blower fasteners progressively and evenly, lift it straight up, and cap the ports immediately. Anything dropped into an open port is now in a cylinder.
3. Valve covers, rocker shafts, pushrods. Loosen each rocker shaft's bolts a little at a time, working across the shaft, so it is unloaded evenly and does not bend. Lift the assemblies off intact. Pull the pushrods and store them in a marked rack — if they are going back in at all, they go back in their original positions.
4. Capture the lifters. This is the step people skip and regret. With the valley open, remove the lifter guide tray fasteners and lift the lifters and trays out as assemblies. If you are reusing lifters, they must return to their original bores. If any lifter is staying in the engine, retain it positively — a lifter that drops out of its bore as the cam is withdrawn can end up in the pan, and retrieving it means the pan comes off.
5. Front of engine. Remove the accessory drive, the crank damper with a proper puller, and the front cover. Note how the cover is sealed before you clean anything, and scrape the sealing surfaces with plastic or brass only — a wire wheel across a sealing face creates the leak you will be chasing next month.
6. Cam drive and thrust plate. Rotate the crank to line up the factory timing marks and photograph them before anything moves. Release the tensioner, remove the cam sprocket, then the cam thrust plate.
7. Withdraw the camshaft. Thread a long handle into the nose of the cam and pull it out straight, supporting its weight the whole way. The lobes will destroy the cam bearings if the cam is allowed to drop or drag. Inspect the bearings, the lobes and the reluctor as it comes out — a wiped lobe or a copper-coloured bearing changes the scope of the job before you go any further.
Assembly, timing and torque
Lubricate the new cam with the assembly lubricant the cam manufacturer specifies — follow their instruction, not a generic one — and slide it in with the same care you used pulling the old one out. Fit the thrust plate and torque it as specified.
Install the timing set with the crank and cam marks aligned exactly as the service information shows, then verify rather than trust: degree the cam with a wheel and dial indicator and confirm the installed centreline against the cam card. If the card and the measurement disagree, correct it now, while everything is still apart.
Every fastener on this job goes to the value and by the method in the factory service manual, in the factory sequence. That applies especially to the cam sprocket bolt, the crank damper bolt, the rocker shaft bolts and the supercharger fasteners — several of those are angle-torqued and some may be single-use. Confirm which ones your engine requires replacing, and confirm current part numbers against the manufacturer catalogue rather than reusing a number copied off a forum post.
Before the top end is buttoned up, check piston-to-valve clearance with clay or a solid-lifter check if the cam is anything beyond a mild grind, and re-check pushrod length with the actual springs and rockers you are running. Then torque the rocker shafts down progressively, in stages, working across each shaft rather than end to end.
A hydraulic roller cam does not need a flat-tappet break-in procedure, but it still deserves a careful first start: prime the oil system, verify pressure immediately, bring the engine up to temperature while watching for leaks, and let it heat-cycle before it ever sees boost. Refill and bleed both coolant circuits properly — the intercooler loop is easy to leave air in, and trapped air there shows up later as inlet air temperatures that make no sense.
Finally, the calibration. A cam change alters what the engine wants for fuel and spark. Budget the tune as part of the job, not as an afterthought.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Hellcat have pushrods or overhead cams? Pushrods. The supercharged 6.2 Hemi is an overhead-valve V8 with a single camshaft in the block, hydraulic roller lifters, pushrods and shaft-mounted rocker arms. It is not an overhead-cam engine, so guides written for a Coyote or a Modular Ford do not apply to it.
Do I have to remove the supercharger to change the camshaft? Yes. The supercharger sits over the lifter valley and bolts to the cylinder heads, so nothing in the valley — lifters, guide trays or the camshaft itself — is accessible until it is off the engine.
Does the engine have to come out? Not necessarily, but the camshaft needs roughly its own length of clear space in front of the block to be withdrawn. Most people either put the front end into the service position and remove the cooling stack, or pull the engine. Decide which before you start, because it changes the tool and fluid list.
Do I need new valve springs with a new cam? Almost always, if the grind is anything beyond a stock replacement. Check installed height, coil bind at maximum lift and retainer-to-seal clearance for the specific cam and spring combination — those three checks matter far more than a spring's advertised pressure.
Should I replace the lifters and guide trays at the same time? Yes, on any engine with mileage on it. Used lifters carry a wear pattern matched to the old lobes, and the guide trays age with heat cycles. Doing them with the cam is cheap insurance against a wiped lobe.
How long does a Hellcat cam swap take? Shops commonly book a supercharged Hemi cam package in the low double-digit labour-hour range, and longer when the front end comes apart, the engine comes out, or the valvetrain package has to be measured rather than simply bolted on.
Do I need a tune afterward? Plan on it. Changing the cam changes the engine's airflow and its fuel and spark requirements, and on a boosted engine, running an old calibration against a new cam is not a risk worth taking.
Sources
Written from Gen III Hemi overhead-valve service practice, general pushrod camshaft removal, installation and degreeing procedure, supercharged-application valvetrain selection practice, and the Core Powertrain Parts catalogue. All torque values, fastener reuse rules, timing mark positions, coolant and oil specifications and current part numbers are deliberately left to the factory service manual and the manufacturer catalogue — confirm them for your engine and model year before you turn a wrench.
Questions on fitment for your build: sales@coretransmissionparts.com. Free shipping on orders over $70.