Cams?

[18 Smoke]

Engines are advancing further these days. We're almost at a point where it will be useless to throw aftermarket cams in. I wonder if we reached that point already.

I spoke with Comp a couple of months ago. They said said there was no power to be found on the Gen3 exhaust cams, but around 40hp with just intake. FWIW

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[Torinate]

40 hp is a nice chunk though!

 

[4V Mayhem]

40 hp is a nice chunk though!

It is debatable as to whether or not it is worth the price of the cams and install. If a set costs $1200 and you have to tear the engine apart or pay someone an extra thousand to do it for you then it is not worth the money. Not when headers can give the same or similar results and cost much less for parts and install.

 

[Stephen@lethal]

Depending on how much power you're trying to make is what will give you what you need to know, if you're sub 1000whp, hands down they are a waste of money. Anything over that, cams can benefits you for sure.

 

[3star2nr]

It is debatable as to whether or not it is worth the price of the cams and install. If a set costs $1200 and you have to tear the engine apart or pay someone an extra thousand to do it for you then it is not worth the money. Not when headers can give the same or similar results and cost much less for parts and install.

Yeah but if you're staying all motor and you already have FBO its totally worth it...

Its not really an either or thing if we decided to do every mod based on if its "worth it" no one would do any mods...

Even a supercharger. Drop 5-8k on the kit, another 5k in supporting parts and another 5k to replace the parts you just broke....

So 40k car +15 call it 20k in mods and repairs you're now at 60k... Before tooling or labor costs...

Would have been better off buying a used ZR1...

My general rule is if you think you want it, and its keeping you up at night buy it, do it, sell it if you dont like it...

Lifes too short to wonder what if...

 

[18 Smoke]

It’s something I’ll probably do when(not if) I build a motor. Doing it while everything’s apart, you only have the price of the cams to deal with

 

[95 marty]

Thanks for all the advice. I sent an email for l@m and we will see what they say. Maybe I will just throw some headers. Just worried about smog.

 

[Notagain]

Engines are advancing further these days. We're almost at a point where it will be useless to throw aftermarket cams in. I wonder if we reached that point already.

Not a chance. This is all backwards. The real question here is how far into racecar do you want to go?!

Cams shift the power band period. Want cams that make low end grunt. Sure you can design a lobe for that. Want cams to make HP at the top of the rpm band say 7k plus sure you can design a lobe for that.

Want to run giant lift? Want to run a wider duration and hold the valves open? Lift vs. Duration vs. How high you want to spin the engine have a drastic effect on cam design.

Point im trying to make is ANY cam design is going to excel in some areas and suffer in others.

This is exactly why variable cam timing is freaking amazing!

Want a little cam that can cruise around time and be at highway speeds AND have a cam that can make excellent horsepower at 8k rpm? The best solution is to electronically turn the cam ahead in real time. If I recall correctly the VCT on the coyotes have like a 50 degree sweep. Meaning If you set a cam at 0 degrees it can move +/- 25 degrees. I dont remember exactly how far +/- the phasers can move them thought. 50~ degrees though thats a hell of a lot!

Now some cams depending on the lift require lockouts so the degree "window" the phases can move the cam is limited.

This article is excellent on the coyote engine and explaining how much VCT is actually worth!

https://www.fordnxt.com/news/how-much-power-does-coyote-vct-account-for-aem-answers-the-question/

Lastly you can run giant full race big lift cams on a coyote but the cams will need to be locked out. And once you get to a certian point of turning it into a racecar you dont need it to act civil on the street and have driveability manners thus not needing VCT at all anyways.

Alot of people im affraid fear the cams just as much as people dont tend to change converters because they dont understand what its going to gain or change how the car acts.

IMO VCT is what makes the coyote so badass theres a lot of technology crammed into that little gen3 for example to make 460hp from 5 liters!

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