FITTING KENT CAM

[madcodling]

how easy is it to fit a kent cam to my gte ive got moderate experience on my engine so please help.................

[-Bruce-]

i did mine about two months ago on my 1400. it was easy to do but the instructions on one part were abit vague!! apart fi that it was a easy job.
i found it fun to do maybe cause im sad but hey!! :oops:
good luck!!

bruce

[S_Gault]

its impossible to time properly on a hydralic follower unless you know tweak or 2.. if you want i'll explain it.

Steven

[-Bruce-]

is this not why you should always buy a verneir witht eh cam shaft so it can be timed corectly!! but i can understand what you are saying with the hydralic lifters, you cant get it perfect!! would not mind you explaining it to me if you know?
cheers mate

bruce

[S_Gault]

a vernier makes no difference...

how can you possibly set it when the valve clearance changes when you start the engine?

the vernier is only useful for swinging it on the dyno.. which tells you when its correct. but to set it without an engine dyno is quite involved.

Heres how to do it-

first make up a solid lifter from and old hydralic one, then build the engine up with this installed and shim it to set a vavlve clearance of zero. Time the cam as per instructions.. 108deg after TDC, full lift on number one inlet etc...

mark your cam gear and camshaft and strip head. Build up using your hydralic lifter and set to the marks you just made.

Cam timing will be as per marks.

I make my own vernier using a std pulley for ?50.


Steven

[-Bruce-]

allright i understand. yeh cause valve clearance will change when engine gets hot etc. thats interesting!!

cheers mate

bruce

[S_Gault]

no.. the valve clearance will change when the engine starts on a hydralic follower as oposed to when its not started.

Thats why if you set the cam timing on normal followers.. it never reaches the full lift point.. follower needs oil pressure to build up and take up the clearance ramp on the cam.

When its runnign there is zero clearance on cam on hydralic followers, thats why you shim it to zero using a solid follower.

This is doubly important if youve just skimmed you head.. as you also succesfully retard the cam timing by taking up the slack as head is now closer to block..

Now you start to see whats involved in race engine preparation and what i have to do every day

[madcodling]

so i take it that it aint a piece of p**s then or even moderatl.y easy to do

[S_Gault]

Its very easy to do.. but very involved to get the kind of performance thats possible from it..

Most dont either thru misinformation or just that they dont know its necessasry.

Most just lift cam carrier and change cam, line the marks.. hope for best.

I dont, but then again I do this for a living and Ive got the track results to back it up.

good luck and have fun

Steven

[madcodling]

so basically i could lift out the old cam and put in the new one would i get any gains from this and can it be done

[MechaT]

That made very interesting reading.

In answer to your question Madcodling, follow the instructions in Haynes manual. Or if your lucky like me, use a cam tool which compresses the followers so you can just slide the cam out and save some time.
What Steve said is if you want it absolutely perfect, essential for competition. But stick in your cam and make sure the pulley teeth line up and you'll get gains

It's all easy but you've just gotta make sure everything lines up. 2nd time I changed my cam I stuck it in retarded by 1 tooth (17 degrees-ish). Felt the same as standard cam with the added benefit that it wouldn't idle. Duh :roll:

[madcodling]

so what is the best cam to get i.e kent road rally or piper ect.
and what gains should i expect.

thanks by the way all.

[nova_rally]

Kent reckon that their cams for use with Hydraulic lifters will work almost perfect when set up as per Haynes manual. I'll trust them! Fitted it now anyway (in cam carrier and new head), just waiting on all the gaskets and it's going in the car along with a 1.2 Head.

Physically putting the cam in the carrier is piece of piss, take it youve got a Haynes manual? just follow that. Don't bugger up the bearings though when you pull the old one out.

Alan

[S_Gault]

nova -rally.. did you even read a word i typed?

If you have 2 identical engines.. and you skim the head .020in on one, and fit identical cams.. the cam timing on the one you just skimmed head on will be different.. so its impossible to say that it'll be right..

Look, kent tell you coz they are selling you a cam.. Im selling nothing here.. I build compeition engines for a living, Ive a Superlfow 110e flowbench, and access to an engine dyno..so maybe my experience counts for something.

If you build your engines like that, then you wont win much

If people continue to give belittling comments as above then I'll stop giving info and clear off back to my own work..

Steven

[benji]

first make up a solid lifter from and old hydralic one, then build the engine up with this installed and shim it to set a vavlve clearance of zero. Time the cam as per instructions.. 108deg after TDC, full lift on number one inlet etc...

mark your cam gear and camshaft and strip head. Build up using your hydralic lifter and set to the marks you just made.


Steven

when you bolt every thing down and then strip it do you bin the bolts and head gasket or can you use the same one's, so you are actually replacing them twice? do you follow or have i lost you??

cheers

ben.


it's going in the car along with a 1.2 Head.


get a sri head.

[S_Gault]

very valid question Ben.

I have a set of preloaded bolts that i use specially for this purpose. The head gasket i use is the one i am building the engine on, as the engine will not be started so the laquer will not have had a chance to melt yet.

Steven

[benji]

so you build it up with the bolts from your tool kit(lack of better phrase) and then set it, and when re assembled you use a set of new bolts.

when i last had the head off i fitted new bolt's from the motor factors. a mate saw thm other day and said they were high tension or somthing along those lines. i asked for bolts to suit my engime . the one's i got said 10.something on the top, he said i should have 8.something.

any idea's?? is this good or bad. if it's good then what are they normally fitted to so i can get them again. i checked them along side my old one's to make sure they were the same size thread and length before fitting but i didn't notice the numbers

another thing (sorry :oops: ) where can i get a stronger head gasket for a 1.4.

that's it now. :)

cheers

ben.

[S_Gault]

bolts-- right quick lesson.

All bolts are basically a spring that holds 2 things together. Now depending on thread pitch and size of bolt and material its cut from they have different preloads needed to set their stretch. In industry this is done by measuring the length of the bolt.. but not all can be done like this.. ie ones that go into a blind hole.

Studs are better than bolts coz you get no twisting during tighteneing, but then they brought out stretch bolts.. which is what novas are..

The number relates to the tensile strength of the bolt.

The key here is to follow the advice of the bolt manufactures for torque angle rating

Steven

[nova_rally]

Pardon Me For Breathing :lol:

Benji - FAI Head Gaskets are good.

Alan