Cam choice

[16v Nova Kev]

I'm looking for a cam that would work well on my gte engine.
It's going to have head work and bike carbs.

[millworm]

I always use kent race cams

[Stuart]

Kent AST2 or a piper BP300 (imho the AST2)

[tom reid]

Kent AST2 or a piper BP300 (imho the AST2)


second that^

[16v Nova Kev]

Cool :cheers:

[philip]

Newman phs4 sprint cam, their full race cam they advertise was a customers profile and only lasts 2races, anything over 12.5mm lift and wasting your time, also need to look at solids, spring sets and if go for a large cam, having spring seats machined so springs don't become 'coilbound' oh.........and kent spring kit for big cams isn't suitable for big cams without machining the head, even though they tell you otherwise ;)

[marc69]

the kent 51 cam on my 1.4 (1.6 head) does seem to give a little more at high revs but the car is still drivable round town. It is a very mild cam though and not knowing anything about cams previously it came with the adjustable pulley which let me experiment last march to get the valve timing at it's best. Depends how much gain you want and how drivable around town you want.

[16v Nova Kev]

Is it possible to re profile the std cam and what about getting the cam box skimmed

[philip]

I'd advise not going reprofiled, I've had lads supply autosprint reprofiled cams for the 20xe's when I've been converting head to solids and they have either snapped cranking engine over or within a very shot space of time, too much material tends to get removed from the base of the lobe + weakens them.

[Stuart]

I still say ast2, no need to convert to solid, no silly high revving needed, great power etc.

[tom reid]

I'd advise not going reprofiled, I've had lads supply autosprint reprofiled cams for the 20xe's when I've been converting head to solids and they have either snapped cranking engine over or within a very shot space of time, too much material tends to get removed from the base of the lobe + weakens them.

This is where philip and I differ, I don't mind a reprofiled cam for fast road use or even mild race or rallying, there is a little bit of extra work involved in getting all the settings to spec, machined cam boxes, shims under the hydraulics etc, but I've never had a cam break due to it being a reprofiled item, I've seen cams broken due to incorrect torque settings, incorrect shimming up or lack of oil to the bearings.
Philip is entitled to his opinion as I am to mine, so no slagging match please.
Reprofiled cams tend to be cheaper than blanks, but if they were that bad, why do Piper and Kent offer them, remember that most cams, blank or reprofiled are done on the same machine and if you knew the cost of a blank to the companies involved you'd understand that the 'blank cam' market is a complete rip off to retail customers.

[philip]

Hiiiiiii tom:D

Its as you have mentioned, we both differ, both for various reasons/experiances, the cams I've had snap were from geoff @ autosprint, and both were his '450' profile, fitted with the longer buckets to compensate for the material removed from the underside and shim to spec, they snapped right between lobe + bearings.

I will say I've not seen pipers/kents snap, only autosprints.