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(88 votes) Published: Jan 03, 2008 6:47 p.m. In 3 Favorites Lists Viewed 386 times
In the performance tuning world, there are grease monkeys and there are engineers. The problem today is that we need engineers who are grease monkeys and we need grease monkeys (mechanics) who are good engineers. There are plenty of aftermarket parts developers and engineers who understand how tuning an engine affects its powerband and its horsepower but dont actually know how to pick up a wrench and do it. On the other hand, there are also plenty of mechanics who have just been trained to remove the old parts and install the new ones without knowing how pieces work and why tweaking little bolts will affect a car engine.
I go to car shows and racetracks and observe how young enthusiasts tune their cars. The ones who have money but little mechanical talent will just pay a shop or engine builder to set up their engine for what they want to do with it. People with very little money but a great understanding of cars will work on the things themselves but many times cannot diagnose problems and change the behavior of their engine for different racetracks.
Now for anyone who questions the credibility of my eggs, i will post my own original photos with documentation so people can blow it out their ass.
What we are dealing with today is cam timing and the combinations of parts that a camshaft and adjustible cam gear need in order to get the most useful power.
Here’s the Camshaft i put into one of my cars. It is a fairly HOT cam (288 degree racing camshaft) used for getting alot of power, poor fuel economy but still put out good torque.
The camshaft controls the opening and closing of intake and exhaust valves in the engine’s cylinder head and combustion chamber. In controlling it, it also controls how high the valve lifts and how long the valve stays open. A camshaft with a high lift and a long duration will be better for top-end power and getting the best peak power but will put alot more stress onto other engine parts. The camshaft in non-variable cam timing engines (non V-TEC) will always have the same duration, the same lift, the same lobe center and wont change for different engine rpms.
So with that said, an adjustable cam gear always helps to make the engine get the type of power you want. Typically, i will adjust the cam gear by 2 degrees at a time in the direction i prefer **will explain later**, i start up the motor and let it run for 15 minutes, i take it for a spin around the block and i feel the difference in my powerband.
**Advancing (+) the cam timing will give the engine more torque in the lower rpm band. It will give more power overall and run smoother. The reason for this is because the valves open earlier than the piston reaches the top of its revolution. Not only is less vacuum created in the combustion chamber to slow the motor down, but air will be able to flow in easier and the timing will be setup for the combustion rate so that the maximum potential of the fuel that is injected is taken advantage of during low-mid rpms. Retarding (- haha very funny) the cam timing will make the valves open and close later so that when the engine is running at an extremely high speed, it will be able to take advantage of the maximum potential of the fuel. The intake valve will open later so that the engine creates a stronger vacuum at a higher speed so that more air rushes into the combustion chamber when the intake valve does open. Then, when the exhaust valve opens, the exhaust gases will already have been slightly compressed and will rush out easier. This type of timing doesnt work at lower engine speeds because the engine i will not create enough vacuum and compression to run efficiently and smoothly.**
So, adjustable cam gears are made. The cam gear I use is made from solid billet aluminum and can be advanced or retarded up to 8 degrees. There are 6 TORX bolts (6-point star) bolts that hold adjustment between the cam sprocket itself and the camshaft plate. These bolts can be loosened and the timing can be slid around to change the powerband so that you can dragrace on the weekend and drive to work in stop-and-go traffic on monday without a problem.
There are adjustment marks on the cam gear itself so that you know what the fuck you are doing when you screw around with your car. There are timing lines that are marked with a + and - representing advance and retard of timing. There is an engraved dot on the outside timing belt pulley that is lined up with a line for the proper timing. In this next picture, my timing is set at 4 degrees Advanced (more torque in low-mid rpm band).
I am sorry that the objects are a little dirty, it is difficult to keep engine parts clean when you havent touched them in 8 weeks.
Now, if you have picked out your camshaft and cam gear and have the gaskets and chemicals and tools to install it, you may also want to note that the engine is going to be sucking in more air and burning more fuel. Make sure that the intake system is ready for more air being sucked in. I prefer to take a dremel tool and cut up my intake box and covert it into a Cold Air Intake. I cut a hole into the intake box and remove the cold-start engine pre-heat pipe. The pre-heat pipe makes the engine warm up faster by sucking in hot air off of the exhaust manifold when you try to warm up your engine in cold weather. This pipe has a tendency of leaking even during warm weather and hot air is still sucked into the intake and cuts down on potential HP. Denser air has more oxygen molecules which means more fuel can be burned (more power created). Cold air is more dense than hot air.
I took a Dremel Tool and cut a 6" by 4 inch hole in my intake away from hot engine components. I then installed a K&N panel air filter which has less resistance in the intake tract so that the motor has to struggle less to pull air in.
BIG HOLE i cut in my air intake.
Panel Air Filter (FROM INSIDE THE AIR INTAKE BOX)
After that was finished, i then went to a junkyard and bought a MAF sensor (MASS AIR FLOW) that is meant for more airflow and less resistance. I jacked one off of an old BMW 318i. It plugs right in but requires a little dittling with and adjustment of the spring tension on a doorway plate. It is 1" wider in diameter and allows for alot more airflow and less air resistance. I noticed a good jump in high-end torque with this mod.
Understand that installation of performance engine parts often requires installation of more performance engine parts in order for any hp gain to be felt. A camshaft is useless if you have a shitty old air filter. An adjustable cam gear doesnt do much good if you are using the stock camshaft. A bigger MAF sensor wont do much of anything if you dont have any performance mods done to your engine.
I appreciate you reading my bolt-on performance guide.
Jan 03, 2008 6:56 pm - With that mod alone in a stock 1.8L motor that is 109 hp. It jumped to 132 hp. Big change in vehicle behavior. I have made alot of other adjustments to that motor now so it is close to 250hp now.
Jan 03, 2008 6:59 pm - Not a useful idea? I dont know about that. If you dragrace someone who has a motor half the size of yours and they beat you by a mile, you may be interested in asking them. Getting alot of power out of your motor isnt like it is in videogames and movies where you bolt on a few parts that you bought on Ebay and go fast. A 200 hp civic could get beaten by a 120 hp civic if the 120hp civic owner knew how to adjust the motor for balance between power and torque at all rpm ranges.
Jan 04, 2008 10:07 am - Maybe you should re do your exhaust egg Or do another
one that actually teaches how to put one on with out welding and such or how the exhaust works?
Reason is once i get my car BMW M5 1993*hopefully* i want to change up the exhaust except i dont want some rice rocket thing sticking out of the back
5*
Jan 04, 2008 3:38 pm - Where am I learning this shit? I work at an engine lab/machine shop that has A flowbench, dyno, full machineshop including cam/crank grinders, CADD/CAM computers and software, all CNC machines and 5-angle valve grinders. I am also in school training to become an automotive engineer. I have Stacks of Honda Dyno and Flowbench sheets in folders and i havent seen many suped up Hondas make alot of torque. Torque IN COMBINATION WITH horsepower is what wins races, not power alone. Power is useless if it has no leverage to pull weight. Most of my dyno sheets for honda motors including suped up B16s, B18s, B20s, F-22, H-22s and on all say the same thing. POWER at top end, not much torque. Why is it that you need to rev the living fuck out of a honda motor in order for the car to take off the starting line? Hmm, maybe "the lack of torque" is the answer to that question. Honda can make alot of peak power at one part of the powerband but they dont do a very good job at balancing it. EVEN WITH VTEC! VTEC is nothing special, Volkswagen/Audi experimented with it back in the 1960’s and found that the number of disandvantages to its design outnumbered the number of advantages. Thats why they still dont use it today, instead they just have a timing chain tensioner that can delay/advance cam timing for different rpms and is still tuned correctly for the motor EVEN AFTER a hot camshaft setup is installed. There is nothing special about variable valve timing and lift electronic control. My dyno sheets show that most stock Honda motors have more torque spread throughout the powerband than highly modified ones. I have a B18 at my shop right now that is pushing 745 hp at the crank. That power is at 6,900 rpm. At 6,600 it is only 200 hp. WHAT THE FUCK! that is a useless powerband. Its torque is 180 ft lbs peak at 1800 rpm. At 6,000 rpm it is 98 ft lbs. That sounds like a REALLY fast car! And the reason why it snaps axles so much isnt because it is SOOOO powerful. It is because the driver has to rev the motor up so much that they snap. A heavily modified volkswagen is launched at 2,500 rpm. Even stock volkswagens are launched at 2,500-3,000. A modified vw can snap an axle at 3,000 rpm if the clutch is sidestepped. Take that home and blow it out your ass. I dont give a fat baby’s dick about VTEC and mating of cylinder heads. We arent talking about special circumstances, a modified honda GENERALLY has a choppy powerband and unbalanced proportion between power and torque. I have seen plenty of "600 hp civics" get destroyed by bone stock 1997 volkswagen jetta VR6s. 2.8 VR6 is 172 hp stock and 180 ft lbs of torque. It doesnt lose much in either direction of the powerband. Dont try to school the teacher on their own subject.
Jan 04, 2008 3:52 pm - Another thing that i noted was that it is possible for a 120 hp stock civic to beat a 200 hp modified one. And the circumstance that i added with that was WHEN PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE THEIR ENGINE TUNED PROPERLY. You may want to slam your head off your desk for 2 reasons. #1, Out of pure embarassment. and #2, maybe it will fix something. I dont see many civic owners who know how to tune their motor properly. Most of them just want to get the highest amount of peak power so they can have some cool dyno sheets to show to their friends. VW enthusiasts CAN do that too. But in the long run, it isnt about who has more power, its about who can get their car from point A to point B in the shortest amount of time. If you have to wait 3 seconds after every shift in order for your motor to get torque so that it can accelerate again, than either you suck at suping up cars, your motor has poor compression, or your driving a honda.
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