Cam gear info..

[kittay]

Ok, so I know a few cam gears have had issues of breaking.. or back off easily.

Give me some info on them!!! I'm going to be running FP4r cams. So I really do not know much at all about cam gears... so information please!!! Help educate me!!!

I'm looking into AEM, HKS, Fidanza, or Crowers...

Which were good and which had problems? Any additional info would be awesome

 

[turboglenn]

Well, I personally like the fidanza's because of the stainless steel studs instead of bolts into aluminum for the tightening system. I was lucky to find a good deal on a used pair and have been playing with tehm lately. I've had customer cars with them on the engine but never really got to experioment around with them like i have since getting my own.

My breakdown is that you don't really gain a ton of power, you may pick up some that was lost due toimproper cam timing to start, but they more or less allow you to move your power band around. I've got a medium sized turbo (57 trim t3/t4) and it's pretty laggy so i started playing with trying to get some mid-range to low end back, but in the end i prefered the opposite, noiw i love seeing 8200 RPM shift points in my data logs and it feels to pull harder longer. When i set them up for more low end hit the car feels largely the same as it does with no adjustment except i notice the power band dropping off earlier. So for me they helped with the top end i gained (which i always wanted more of anyway) and didn't harm the spoolup of the turbo or low end hardly at all. I know this isn't a scientific breakdown, but it's been my experiences with them on my car just goofing around and watching the tuning differences and deciding what i want.

I will say one thing i've learned is that if you set them up for more top end the motor becomes really fuel efficient if you tune fr it. When you set them up for more mid-range the car wants more fuel even in the lightest of cruising enviroments. For example i had to raise the pulsewidth all through out the cruising and idle for a 4* retarded exhaust cam, but needed only minimal adjustment to the upper RPM's when it was advanced..that's kinda a "derr" moment but you get the idea just thought it was interesting that you could see the power band wanting to move by seeing the engines desire for a particular amount of fuel at a given RPM, and to boot the amount that gets effected by retarding the cams is rediculous where there's minimal difference in making a more top end oriented cam timing

 

[kittay]

Seems like alot of people like the Fidanzas.

Anyone heard anything bad about them?

 

[Demon33]

I too would like to know about your experiences with cam gears. I have a set of HKS 264/272s installed and a pair of STM Racing cam gears waiting to be installed. These cam gears only have 3 screws/bolts per gear. I'm a little worried that they won't hold. However, HKS's currently designed cam gears also have only 3 screw/bolts while other companies use more. Makes me wonder why HKS has not changed their design to incorporate more fasteners. Could the 3 screw design be working well for HKS and the other companies are just being a little more cautious?

Who has had a cam gear back off even though the screws/bolts were tightened? How many screws/bolts in the cam gear? What brand?