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Adjustable Cam Gear Choice

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98spydert

15+ Year Contributor
1,916
8
Jan 16, 2004
Phoenix, Arizona
I'd like to get some adj cam gears so I can degree my cams properly. I see lots of brand out there, what is the difference between a AEM and OBX cam gear when they're made of the same materials and have the same features like "computerized design, laser etched writing, and grade 8 (3 or 4, 4 being the OBX) adjustment bolts"? Are the AEM gears worth TWICE what the OBX costs? Are there any reported failures of OBX or any brands one would like to know about while shopping for a set? Thanks for the feedback.
 
From what I read, those FP2 cams you have are supposedly drop in type cams. No real need to degree them...?? Can anyone confirm this??
 
From my experience with degreeing cams you only need an adjustable exhaust cam to really get the cams to the perfect setting. Especially if you are buying high grade cams such as the fp2's or hks's. I would run the hks adjustable cam gears but that's only cause of what I have had experience with and so far its only been good.
 
98eclipseRS said:
From my experience with degreeing cams you only need an adjustable exhaust cam to really get the cams to the perfect setting. Especially if you are buying high grade cams such as the fp2's or hks's. I would run the hks adjustable cam gears but that's only cause of what I have had experience with and so far its only been good.
Click to expand...

Why would you only need the exhaust gear? I thought the purpose of degreeing cams was to make up for errors and tolerances in the machining process of aftermarket cams as well as altered engine geometry due to modifications or rebuilds to the rest of the engine? I don't see how only the exhaust cam would be affected in either situation. Please explain, this is kind of new to me :)
 
You would think that they would cut a ref. point into the end of the cam before machining. That way ALL the cams would be exactly the same. I am more than likely buying a set of FP2s this week and I was hoping not to have to buy adj. cam gears also. :rolleyes:
 
98spydert said:
Why would you only need the exhaust gear? I thought the purpose of degreeing cams was to make up for errors and tolerances in the machining process of aftermarket cams as well as altered engine geometry due to modifications or rebuilds to the rest of the engine? I don't see how only the exhaust cam would be affected in either situation. Please explain, this is kind of new to me :)
Click to expand...


Well I have no actual scientific data to back up my post...but from all the experiences I have personally had with cams and adjustable cam gears, now you have to note up untill the point of my recently aquired 6bolt all the cams I have had experience with have been hks's, On all of the cars I have dealt with ONLY the exhaust cam has been an adjustable one. In all of the applications I have dealt with having only the exhaust cam be adjustable has given us enough room to deal with any degreeing discrepancies we have had. Who knows maybe I am just lucky and have only dealt with cams that just happened to be properly ground but so far no bad experiences.

My opinion on all of this could quite possibly change however, since my built 6bolt has web cams and dual adjustable cam gears both of which are degreed off the zero mark, and from what I hear web cams are not exaclty the greatest when it comes to being properly ground.
 
So you've degree'd both cams but only needed to make changes to the exhaust cam and the intake was dead on? Sounds like good luck to me :) Any change such as milling the head will result if both cams needing the correction. Mabye HKS really are perfect from the factory and they grind their exhaust cam a few degree's advanced or retarded like Comp grinds both cams 4 degrees advanced?

From what I've heard about the FP2s, I probably won't need adjustments. I'll deffinetly get some for my 2.4 build though.
 
yes correct so far in the four cars i have installed cams in all of them have had no problems with the intake cams, 1 needed 1 degree of correction 1 needed about half a degree and the other two were perfect for both intake and exhaust. So most likely good luck on my part...however I have a bad feeling about the web cams in my 6bolt I am building so we will see how it all turns out.
 
I just bought a set of the new Crower 264/272s. I think I will buy the adj. gears just incase ;) . Can anyone answer the orginal question?? OR does anyone have any they want to sell me?? :rolleyes:
 
HKS need no or little degreeing mostly due to the fact that they are made of new billets whereas many aftermarkets used to be regrinds. FP/comp are relative newcomers in the DSM world. I 'm not sure what type of manufacturing process they undergo. If they are not regrinds chances are they don't need adjustment. Hope I don't deviate too much from topic.
 
98spydert said:
Yeah, you did LOL :)



ANYONE have info on the cam gears??
Click to expand...


my guess would be they are the same thing. I guess the whole new hooplaw with OBX is that they take a established manufaturers design and litteraly copy it and sell it for half the price, so my take on it would be that you would be fine with the obx or any knock offs for that matter.
 
Exactly what i was thinking, but I still might bite the bullet and buy the Fidanza's off ebay for $189.... :rolleyes:
 
Just get the exhaust side adj cam gear. There is a huge thread on this - just run a search. There is no reason to adjust the intake side. Just about 3-4deg retard on the exhaust cam is the sweet spot.
 
sp00ln said:
Just get the exhaust side adj cam gear. There is a huge thread on this - just run a search. There is no reason to adjust the intake side. Just about 3-4deg retard on the exhaust cam is the sweet spot.
Click to expand...

That's what Honda guys tell me :rolleyes: I wanted the gears to I could correctly degree the cams, not make more power. The FP2s are supposably ground to the "sweet spot" already anyways, but we'll see...
 
i beleive there as a thread a while back where someone degreed their stock cam to 3.5deg and even say a gain in power at the mid and top end. which if that is the case then i dont see why going with adjustable gears would be negitive thing for anyone. i eventully like everyone else will step up my cams to fp2's probally and they are sopposid "drop in" but the reason you have the adjust cam gear is to squeeze every little last hp out of that motor not so much for making up for descrepincies in the maching process.

so wheres the best place to buy em..
 
I noticed that too about the OBXs, and I just don't trust that companies products... direct copies or not. The AEMs look like they are the best built. Anyone else know anything about these???
 
Most aftermarket cam gears suck.

Unorthodox and HKS are the ONLY ones I would ever run on my engine.

I had a set of Fidanza's, they suck, stay away. I'm rockin' stockers. Painted for bling.
 
alright, not to hijack, but if anybody has any info on which cam gears will work with the 95-96 CAS please let me know. i read that the UR will not fit on both sides. will the HKS or fidenza or AEM....? any info is helpful. if you just want to PM me, that'd be great. thanks.

jeff
 
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