cam gears! do they really work? - Honda Prelude Forum

01-07-2002, 11:51 PM

and what do you have to remove to install them? how long of a job is it on a gen 5?

thanks

gLudeous · 01-08-2002, 12:27 AM

A major point of VTEC is to maximize the cam duration and lift for two different rpm ranges to give the most power in those two ranges, so it makes sense when people say that cam gear adjustments don't make much difference on a stock engine; Honda ain't no complete ship of fools, after all. On an engine with I/H/E, fuel adjustments (like a VAFC controller) and maybe hotter camshafts cam gears give you some room to adjust at what rpm the most power is made and what shape the power curve looks like. Then you can trade a boost in midrange power for a small reduction in top end power, which isn't a bad trade-off given the nature off a smaller 4 cylinder engine. Bottom line is it won't change the absolute total output of the engine much but it might make a more modified engine seem "bigger" at the expense of some high rpm breathaility, which is not a bad trade-off considering how much time most of us spend under 6000 rpm.

For ease of adjustment, you have to saw off of the cam gear part of the valve cover. Then the cam gears are pretty much screwed in place of the stock ones with careful careful attention paid to the alignment of the cam gears with the crankshaft. Then some dyno tuning will help tune the gears to the kind of power curve you are going for.

01-08-2002, 12:42 AM

soo rite now i have a aem cai and a apexi dunk. soon ill be ordering my aem pulleys and N2 headers, soo pretty much without the vafc and dyno tuning my car the cam gears are of no use. i am i rite? or am i confused...... =T

please reply

thanks

ImagePree · 01-08-2002, 12:46 AM

all brandon said is: Cam gears allow you to shift the powerband according to what you like.
in other words, you can tune it for more low-mid range, or mid-high range.

01-08-2002, 12:47 AM

which means that i can still go for them and do the setup iam going for and that will still allow me to adjust them to get low end hp?

thanks

ImagePree · 01-08-2002, 12:55 AM

yes.
having them installed and set at 0 on both intake and exhaust will do no harm -- it'll just be the stock setting.

gLudeous · 01-08-2002, 12:59 AM

Tough to say, there might be more cost effective ways to get a bit more torquey feeling out of the engine, like AEM pulleys (do a search on them, seems some people here have gotten real conrete results out of them); a lightweight flywheel (which involves opening the transmission of course). The VAFC seems a mystery to me, I know a guy who has pretty simple mods plus a well tuned VAFC and he murders a lot serious cars ( rolling starts with 4.6 Mustang GTs if your interested), but he's spent about $500 on dyno tuning the damn thing so it hasn't turned out to be the cheapest mod either. I'm not sure if that is what all of us would be able to shoot for, though.