XxDarkSiderxX

Hey Hows it going i had 2 ask this question for one reason and one reason 2 know how much 2 adjust my cam gear for freeway uses can someone tell me how would be a good degree

Boilermaker1

iTrader: (16)

You need to put the car on a dyno and set it for best gains. Everyones engine is going to respond a little differently.
Although, cruising down the highway, what was wrong with the stock setting? Its not like you need extra power to use the cruise control. You're only going to get gains at WOT because thats how you dyno the car... so thats the only time you'll know what you're getting.

EManEX

Correct me if I’m wrong with this but I was under the impression that the adjustable time gear were useless on our cars because our ecu will just adjust it self to compensate for the changes in the timing. So am I right or wrong?

Thanks.

Da2K1

Adjusting the cam will only shift the powerband higer/ lower according to your personal taste, there is unlikely to be any gains w/ the stock cam, as the setting should be perfect at TDC. W/ a regrind / aftermarket cam, adjustments could gain a couple of horses more, as they may be off a little.

EManEX,
don't think the the ECU can control cam timing. As far as the ignition/ fuel goes, the programming will tend to be less aggressive to prevent problems, but adjusting your cam on a dyno will actually help prevent the the ECU from being less aggressive, as your cam timing will be optimised.

EManEX

Thanks.

R3DL1N3

iTrader: (1)

my personal thought on the way the cam gear works was if you want more acceleration just advance it all the way, if you want more high end power then retard it.

HondaLuver

iTrader: (17)

yea you should just retard it 2 degrees since we have no low end power and the only power we have in on the high end...

xtiszx

if you have a cam gear intstalled. and all you have to do is adjust the gear for what type of use you want, i.e, low end power, you dont have to worry about anything else with it?

RiceBuRNeR

iTrader: (3)

I cant remeber who posted this before but read.

Making Sense of Cam Gears
We look at the effects of adjusting cam timing.

By Larry Saavedra


Let's take the math out the complex operation of the camshaft.

One of the most popular advances in product development for do-it-yourself tuners is adjustable cam gears. They are engineered to make precise cam timing changes as easy as turning a wrench.


Prior to these little aluminum gears, cam timing changes meant hours of labor "keying" the fixed cam gear and guess work to change cam timing. Fast forward to the new age of technology.

The need for adjustable cam gears are many, namely a reliable, precise and affordable method of fine-tuning the action of the valves to complement the installation of performance add-ons (headers, cams, intakes) or specialty milling work on built engines.

While adjustable cam gear installations are fairly straightforward, there's always going to be (and rightfully so) heated discussion as to their effectiveness and construction.

We spent a considerable amount of time surfing the web to uncover some of what people were saying, and we learned that cam gear slippage is a major concern among end-users. Slippage refers to the bolts loosening up and allowing the cam timing to advance or retard fully often with catastrophic results. It is typically related to the fasteners that attach the inner hub to the outer gear sector not being set to the proper torque. For whatever reason, particular cam gear manufacturers were singled out for their alleged shortcomings in this area, and so when we discovered that Advanced Engine Management took extra measures to upgrade their fasteners, it perked our interest.

Avoiding Slippage Developed from the need to accommodate customers that did not have the proper tool to torque their Allen-head cam gear adjustment bolts to manufacturerÂ’s specs, AEM came to the rescue by producing its cam gears with proven Grade 8 hex head bolts.

"We've changed our cam gear bolts to accommodate AEM customers who make regular changes to their cam gears," stated AEM chief engineer John Concialdi.

"The new bolts are easier to properly tighten to the required 15 lbs/ft of torque. They also have an integral washer flange for greater load distribution," he added.

Another explanation on how this improves the product might be realized in the following equation:

Torque = force x length of lever

Or in the classic sense:

Weight x Arm = moment

For example, if you apply 100 lbs of force on a one-foot long bar, the lbs/ft of torque applied would be 100. If you applied 100 lbs of force on a two-foot bar, the lbs/ft of torque would equal 200, and so on.

With their old Allen bolts, if the customer was to use a standard Allen wrench with a six-inch handle, he/she would have to apply 30 lbs of force...and it's not easy to apply 30 lbs of force on a little wrench like that. That's just a lot of pressure for such a short moment arm. Inevitably, their bolts were not being tightened to the recommended specs, and in some cases they would eventually loosen, causing the gears to slip.

This was not a design error. The old Allen bolts are just as reliable the hex head bolts. The difference is that most people own standard sockets and now have no excuse for not torquing down these bolts as per the recommended specs. After all, it is much easier to apply 15 lbs of force on a one-foot ratchet handle than it is to apply 30 lbs of force on a skinny, six-inch Allen wrench handle.

It should be noted that one of the positive byproducts is that these bolts do stand up better to repeated adjustments than the Allen bolts did, simply because Allen bolts are more likely to strip in the hex over time and socket type tools are more durable than hex keys.

And so with that understood, let's continue with our lesson in how everything works.

Basically, the job of the camshaft is to open and close the intake and exhaust valves at the "proper time" relative to engine position (piston travel) - to charge the combustion chamber and expel burnt gasses.

However, once you've bolted on performance parts, milled the head or installed a lumpy performance cam, you also alter the optimum cam timing that most sport compacts prefer. What can you do?

By changing the cam timing (retard, advance/overlap), we tune the overall drivability and performance aspect of the car. Even stock engines can benefit by dialing-in cam timing/overlap. These are typical variances in production tolerances that when fine-tuned to your particular engine set-up will easily produce added power.

Many factory cams operate on the conservative side of performance due to emissions and drivability standards, meaning there's always more power to be gained by learning how-to adjust the intake and exhaust valve timing.

Just as aftermarket engine management systems manage precise ignition timing, adjustable cam gears allow you to govern the action of the cam, which controls the timing action of the valves to shift peak power points or to tweak timing overlap within the engine cycle. "Overlap" is the point in the cam's cycle where the intake and exhaust valves are open simultaneously. Here's where critical tuning really optimizes performance because you are producing the most efficient charge of air/fuel in and out of the combustion chamber.

In racing, the ability to dial-in ignition and cam timing/overlap for different track conditions can mean the difference between winning and losing a race. Autocross enthusiasts rely on low to mid-range power for tight turns, whereas drag racers need all the power at the top end. This applies to setting up a car for mostly city or highway driving. In either case, adjustable cam gears will optimize the peak power curve so that maximum performance is adjusted to your style of driving.

While the aftermarket is ripe with adjustable cam gears, don't assume that all cam gears are the same. Variations in material, design, anodizing, and other engineering deviations can affect quality.

Also don't assume that by using adjustable cam gears you have free-reign when changing valve events (that could be catastrophic if the exhaust cam is retarded too much for example). Rather, having firsthand knowledge of how timing effects the cam's operation is key to successfully fine-tuning your engine.

It's important to note that adjustable cam gears have no direct effect on the duration and lift of the valves, that's the job of the camshaft lobes (profile) as dictated by the cam manufacturer.

Think of adjustable cam gears this way:

If the intake valves open at 10 degrees before top dead center (TDC) and close at 190 degrees after TDC, the total duration is 200 degrees. The opening and closing times can be shifted with adjustable cam gears to rotate the cam ahead a little as it spins. For example, if we advance the intake cam 5 degrees then the inlet valves would open 5 degrees earlier. The intake open timing would shift to 15 degrees BTDC and the intake valve would also close earlier by the same 5 degrees. In the example above, the valve timing would be IO at 15 degrees BTDC and IC at 185 degrees ABDC. With SOHC engines the cam timing events for intake and exhaust occur together so intake and exhaust events move the same amount. Retarding timing works just the opposite.

On a SOHC engine, an adjustable cam gear will allow you to move the power curve to a specific area in the rpm band as described above. Like moving your peak power on a high-revving Honda to max out at 4000 to 5000 rpm. Typically to improve bottom end power advancing a SOHC engine will do the trick and the converse is true to enhance top end power.

On DOHC engines you can dial-in intake and exhaust timing independently of each other to regulate overlap. As you'll start to see, combined with the use of a chassis dyno you can fine-tune your cam's entire operation by advancing or retarding its action, squeezing as much horsepower and torque from your state-of-tune as possible.

We decided to dyno a late model DOHC Civic using a set of AEM's new improved cam gears to see how much effect they had on performance. This particular Civic had lots of high-performance parts on it already, including a big turbo, so what we were trying to achieve was an optimum peak power curve for a forced-induction vehicle.

As we mentioned, cam gear slippage can be catastrophic to the valve train, so before we got started, we inspected AEM's new Grade 8 hex head bolts that lock the gear to the camshaft.

The new bolts also have an integral washer flange for greater load distribution. They have also improved the hard anodized surface on the outer gear sector for better wear resistance. Independent testing indicates that the new anodizing is 30 percent more resistant to wear.

Once we were satisfied at what we saw, we proceeded to install the new cam gears. AEM Tru-Time adjustable cam gears are manufactured and assembled in the USA and are CNC-machined from a billet extrusion of 6061 T-6 billet aluminum. AEM's gears are adjustable up to 10 degrees advance or retard in one-degree increments via precise laser-engraved indication marks.

We set ignition timing to 20 degrees advance, and proceeded to dial in both the intake and exhaust side of the cam gears in that order.

For us drivability means more than "peak power" numbers. We were looking for what lies under the power curve, and that's area we attempting to improve upon, which we finally did.

In order isolate the effects of making the changes to the cam timing, the ignition timing has to be reset whenever the intake cam timing was changed.

This is because the intake cam drives the distributor and when the cam is moved the ignition timing moves with it. We adjusted the ignition timing to be the same regardless of cam timing. Also we did the changes to the intake and exhaust cams independently until the end of the test to demonstrate the effects of the changes of each cam. By doing this, we were able to see which trend might gain power for us without having to test the cam timing changes in all possible permutations.

In the end we asked tuner veteran John Concialdi to comment on the outcome. His comments are written below each power run chart.

xtiszx

lots of good info, thanks man, answered my Q

5PEED EX

Which one would you guys pick ? High end or acceleration ? I'm kind of debating...