Degreeing Cams

[Paul Chernoff]

Anyone here ever done it? Seems kinda complicated, gonna attempt it this week though, just looking for some tips

[Wayne Wright]

Are you using 2.0's on a 2.4 litre, or what's the objective here?

[Paul Chernoff]

I have a set of crower stage 2 cams which need degreeing cause they are off from the factory, most people i have read about have had to advance the intake cam up to 4degs and retard the exhaust around 10 degs

[Wayne Wright]

The easiest way to degree the cam is to use the lobe centerline method. Mount the dial indicator on the intake valve retainer as close to inline with the valve as possible. Rotate the motor clockwise (CW) until you are on the base circle of the cam and zero out the dial indicator. Rotate the motor CW until you achieve the maximum lift. Record the value. Continue to turn the motor CW until you achieve a lift that is around 0.050" less than the maximum lift. This is your intake closing. Now continue to rotate the motor until you go to zero lift and back to the same value that you used for the closing lift. This is your intake opening. Add the two numbers and divide by 2. This will give you the intake centerline. Repeat the procedures for the exhaust valve. Once you know the intake and exhaust centerlines add them together and divide by 2 to obtain your lobe seperation. Your advance or retared is the intake centerline minus the lobe seperation. The cams are advanced if your number is positive and retarded if your number is negative. All of this is assuming that you are using a modified lifter that has been converted to solid.
If you are trying this will the hydraulic lash adjusters your life just got harder. You will have to zero out the dial indicator at maximum lift and let the motor sit for a few minutes. Use a hot air gun to bleed all of the oil out of the lifter. Then check the opening and closing numbers. You will have to do this procedure at least 2-3 times to average your results verses just once with solid lash adjusters.
Also, yes the exhaust valve must open before the intake valves when the motor is rotated CW. Assuming that you are starting at TDC of the compression stroke and not at TDC of the exhaust stroke.
Since valve motion profiles differ greatly from one manufacturer to another I recommend starting at the 110 +4 that Crower has listed....

This method seems time consuming, do you have a cam card for your cams with all the exact specs? If so I beleive there is a formula you can use based on those specs which could make things a little easier, let me know if you have the specs and I'll dig it up for you.

[Paul Chernoff]

http://www.crower.com/misc/cam_spec/cam_finder.php?part_num=64413

Thats the cam spec card, BUT!!! they screwed up from what i have read on a few other sites, the you need to take out the minus signs for the specs, Intake opens at 9 ATDC and exhuast closes at 16 BTDC, im going to pick up a set of cam gears, degree wheel, and dial indicator tomorrow, as for the lifters, i was going to take 2 of them, compress them completely, weld them, then shim them up with washers.

[Wayne Wright]

Then it sounds like you have your gameplan then, be sure to post back with how it turns out!

Good luck man! :thumbs:

Oh, and I have a set of extra 1g lifters if you want to pop them two in instead of shimming yours.

[Paul Chernoff]

I pm'd mr meron, hopefully he's got a few kickin around, cause i wanna get this done before i goto the track friday. Hopefully it all works out ok, the whole lifter thing seems like a pain in the ass though.

[Mike Schmid]

Let me know how that turns out too Paul, I wouldn't mind degreeing mine just 'cause.

[Paul Chernoff]

ever since the cams my lag is horrible , so i checked into it, and these cams are pretty far off, as most aftermarket ones are except HKS cams, they seem to be the only ones that you can drop right in. I got the whole week off so im gonna try to get it done tomorrow, went to the track last fri and still ran a 12.9 with the 1g head and cams in, same as last year, with stock cams and 2g head, but last year i ran my 12.9 on c-16, this year it was on 94 oct pump with water inj

[Chris Andrews]

Lets say you go through the laborious process of degreeing your cams.
After you do that, it would be wise to dyno tune your car.  Why not do it all at the same time.

In other words, I would Degree By Dyno™.

[Paul Chernoff]

from what i understand, you kinda need to degree before you dyno, so you have a good baseline to start at.

[Chris Andrews]

from what i understand, you kinda need to degree before you dyno, so you have a good baseline to start at.

When putting on new cams, it is wise to check that valves don't hit pistons.

It certainly would be an educational experience to degree the cams with the wheel.  But you need solid lifters, etc....

But purely optional, so long as they get degreed one way or the other, ie by dyno.  FYI for others, some cams don't require degreeing.

Ultimately, the whole exercise is to get the most power from the cams.   The dyno can tell you that.