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ive been reading you guys and gals formums for the longest time and decided to join. but none of you have come to the conclusion, what degree do you set a aem cam gear. its going to be going on a 2k1 civic lx with SRI, full cat back piping and exhaust. does anyone no or is it best to take it to a motorsport specialist to let them dyno it out. thanks to anyone how helps out.

 
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I think someone suggested the best way to figure it out is to adjust it while your on a dyno to see which degree will give you the best gain.

 
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im looking to keep it as cheap as i can i dont wanna go get it dynoed if someone has done it b4 and can pass alittle help to me so without dyno, im been reading 2 degrees advanced? or am i way off??

 
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Welcome to the board! I just installed mine last weekend. I guess advancing it helps low end torque which we need big time. Anyways I just talked to AEM today and he said to try advancing it 3-4 degrees. you can advance/retartd it up to 10 degrees each way. At first I was confused because it says each tick mark is 2 degrees on the crank, but that doesnnt matter, each tick is 1 degree on the cam. I asked him about damaging my engine, but he said on a stock engine (meaning no internal work) there is no way the valve could hit the piston. I hope this guy knows what he was talking about. He said the only way to know for sure the best setting is to use a dyno. Unless someone else finds a good setting with similar mods to use. I am gunna advance it a little more tonight once my engine cools down.

 
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How did the install go was it difficult...thought about getting one but since we only have on camshaft i didnt really see much performance so i would be getting for the look

 
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Indeed...I wanna get a new timing gear too. How hard was it to install

 
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I thought advancing it improves high end and retarding it improves low end [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/IMG]

 
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Hey man. It all depends on ur ride. You need to dyno it before hand to know EXACTLY what s best.
I do understand this is NOT what u wanted to hear, but its the truth.
Good luck.

 
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Definately need to tune it on the dyno. I don't think you could use someone else's setting because these engines aren't perfectly the same due to factory tolerences. Plus, different regions of the country, altitude levels, etc.....

That's what the thing is for in the first place, so you can adjust or tune the timing...no way to do it w/o a dyno.

 
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i should be getin a cam gear in tomorrow
i will just advance it to 3 or 4
and when i get a chance on a dyno ill adjust it to get most power

 
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It wasn't too hard to install, just unscrew the valve cover, unscrew the timing belt cover, and then replace the gear. Just make sure you put the gear on exactly where the old one was and make sure you line the belt up to the exact same teeth it was on, i used a marker to mark which tooth and lined the belt up. The hardest part was getting the belt back on, also I dropped a screw in the engine so I had to wait for my friend to come over with this magnet stick thing, and luckily that worked. The thing is you should put the timing cover back on which defeats the whole point of showing it off. I have left it off for now while I tune it, but should probbaly put it back on to keep dirt, etc out of the timing cavity. I advance the timing last night to 4 degrees. It seems pretty good, I can definitly notice a difference in low end torque. It takes off a lot better now. It says right in the directions that advancing it improves low end and retarding is for high end so Aznthug you got things backwards. Anyways hopefully someone else will install it soon so we can get another oinion on everything. Later....

 
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hey viciousvolpe where do you live, once your done messing with your cam plz post an update on how your car is handling the cam now when its in. did you leave the valve cover off or did you put it back on? any damage if you leave it off or cut a section for your cam??

thanxs to everyone that replied!! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

 
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Hey man, I was the one that installed the gear already. you need to put the valve cover on!!! it covers all your internals, its the timing cover that I left off.... which I will probbaly put back on, maybe I will cut it and put plexi glass there or something... Later...

 
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whoops i meant the timing cover, that would be dumb to leave valve cover off!! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG]

 
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thats stupid to get a cam gear untill u ahve some serious work done, i have a whole lot of stuff and it helped out great, mine is set at 2 degres retarded. it rips but u dont have anything really thats gonna make a difference i would keep it at 0 untill u get some more work done

 
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i think im goin to leave mine at 0 for awhile
then every so often ill adjust it a degree...see what feels different
i would rather get more high end power
are the instructions easy to read and use?
im getin pulleys too
dont pulleys help low end torque?

 
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well I have an intake, exhaust, header, performance chip, racing downpipe, and digital ignition. I adavced it 4 degrees and it helped me out a lot...

 
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What is the highest you can advance it? 4 degrees seems pushing it to me, but then again I don't know much about the cam gear.[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/IMG]

 
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I tried retarding the cam gear 2 degrees now, I figures since most of the time I am using higher RPM that I would try it this way. Theres a stretch of road on the way to work I usually hot rod it down, I got it up to like 115 before the turn where as before I could get it to like 100 before the turn, so I guess maybe it did help the high end power. Anyways I'm still gunna have to dyno to see where the best setting for me would be. So has any one else been brave enough to install this yet or what? Lets post some other peoples results!

 
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I just did some tests on my AEM cam Gears....when I had them Advanced from 1-5 degree's....i noticed it ONLY improved High End...top speed....I took it out into the country side and slammed on the pedal...not much response in first or second gear...so i said, well might as well try to Retard it....so right now I have it retarded at 2 tick marks = 2 degree's....imma take it higher tomorrow...and yes, retarding the cam gear does improve Low End response. ...and yeah, you can feel the difference too!

*Note - if you are adjusting your cam gear while you just got done driving the car, the best way to do so is wear a sock on each hand and then adjust it...[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-puke.gif[/IMG]

 
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What year civic do you have??

 
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i thought that if you advanced it on a soch engine it would improve in low end and retarding it would improve it in high end. here is the article on it.

 
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yeah but that's for a dohc where one cam relates to the exhaust and the other relates to the intake.

 
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if you read the article is said

 
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oh, didn't read that. but i retarded the cam gear rather than advancing it and i got more lower end than vice versa.