AEM cam Gears (Not cams) question? - Honda Prelude Forum

geerboy69 · 02-10-2003, 04:50 PM

Hey i have about every bolt on you can do to the 97 base model prelude except, a set of cam gears. I've talked to people before and asked their opinion and they said that they weren't worth it, they barely did anything. Now i talk to this guy who seems to know what he's talkin about, and he recommends that on an H22, wether you have cams themselves or not, get the cam gears cause their the way to go. I don't really know enough about it to make an educated decistion.

I mean i know they look cool, so does anybody else have them installed without actual cams? If so do you have any proof of power gains? And if you don't thinke their worth it why??

help guys I got money and want to spend it on something just don't have enough for BOOST!!!

97 prelude i/h/e/p

Joon525 · 02-10-2003, 05:20 PM

Moving to the NA forum.

Satan_SRV · 02-10-2003, 05:30 PM

is p = ported IM and TB?

Why don't you get cams? Do you have a V-AFC? I don't see one in your list?

Cam gears are useless unless you do some dyno tuning. Cam gears, a V-AFC and an experienced tuner on the dyno would help there is no doubt. The amount the cam gears contribute won't be huge though.

axio · 02-10-2003, 06:39 PM

The cam gears alone shouldn't really increase your peak power by much, if by any at all. It WILL however allow you to adjust your powerband, distributing more/less power to your high/mid/low powerband. It does this through advancing and timing your cams.

Of course if you decided to get some camshafts too, then yes, that'd be pretty nice.

geerboy69 · 02-10-2003, 07:06 PM

so explain what the means, I don't know all that much about engines. if i adjust it low i will have no power in the top or what? cause ludes are naturally slow off the line so wouldn't that be the way to go cause we've got vtec later in the rpm range and it shouldn't affect that too much should it? I need like a detailed description on how cam gears on stock cams would work.

I've thought about getting cams before but don't really have the knowledge or engine skills needed to install those. How hard is it to install cams in the h22, i mean i know its all in the top but i always thought cams were a no no unless you were really savvy on engines.

red92si · 02-10-2003, 07:27 PM

Just remember that when you upgrade cams, in most cases you should also upgrade other valvetrain components (such as spings, retainers, etc..) so that the cams will operate effectively.

And to reiterate... cam gears will be most beneficial in conjuction with cams, an SAFC or VAFC, and dyno time.

CTPRELUDE · 02-10-2003, 08:09 PM

I think that his P= Pulleys. Yeah I think you should get cams first.

paulyg · 02-10-2003, 09:21 PM

geerboy, I'll give this a go at explaining the benifit's of cam gears. The cams have lobes that stick out from the round shaft. Imagine an egg rotating on a stick. The top of the egg is what pushes the rocker up which then pushes the valve down. The rocker acts like a sea-saw, the cam end goes up, the valve end goes down. Now every cam "profile" or lobe has a centerline.

The lobe center is either the highest point on the lobe OR exactly in the middle (measured in degrees of cam rotation) of the start and end of valve lift. The reason I qualify the two different senarios is b/c we usually think of the cam profile as symetrical, but it may not be. So the purpose of the cam gears is to move the "lobe centerline" just a little to the "left" or to the "right". We say you are advancing or retarding the the centerline b/c it is happening sooner in the cam's rotation (advance) or later the the rotation (retard).

How does this help you tune your car. Well you are effectively changing when you engine breathes in & out. If you advance the intake cam, you make the engine take in air 1, 2, 3 degrees sooner then it normally would. At higher RPMS, you want the intake to open sooner, at low RPMs it might hurt. Now also take into account that you are making small adjustments so you get a small effect.

The other thing this does is change the amount of time the intake and exhaust are open together. This can also change the dynamic of the enigne. Engines like small over lap at low RPMs and low throttle openings, and larger overlap at high RPMs and wide open throttle.

Now for the other benifit of cam gears. When cams are made they are ground into proper shape. Like all machining processes, there is some error and variation involved. The cam profile may be a little "off" from perfect. The cam gears help make up for this. This is why cam gears are really good if you have aftermarket cams. Aftermarket cams are suseptable to more variation b/c they use the same machine to grind an H22 cam and a mustang cam. Every time an H22 can is made, the machinist has to "set up" the equiptment. On Honda's production line, the same machinies do nothing but produce the same cam over and over. And honda can afford to invest in "jigs" which can take much of the human "set up" out of the eqation. That is why cam gears are really good on aftermarket cams.

Hope all this helps, and please correct me if I have missed or misconstrued anything.

showoff · 02-11-2003, 08:23 AM

very good info

ghostlude82 · 02-11-2003, 09:39 AM

cams are very nice really glad i got them in my car. but the bad thing about power and speed is you are never content now im looking into a supercharger or turbo and more than likely also a tranny swap..

geerboy69 · 02-11-2003, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ghostlude82
cams are very nice really glad i got them in my car. but the bad thing about power and speed is you are never content now im looking into a supercharger or turbo and more than likely also a tranny swap..

so what kind of power gains did you get from the cams and what kind did you get, i'm not opposed to getting them done. and did you do the install or did you pay somebody to do it?

the1Luder · 02-12-2003, 01:53 AM

So if cam gears are good for aftermarket cams, would they be good for Type-S cams? Or would we be able to just stick with our stock ones?

geerboy69 · 02-12-2003, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by the1Luder
So if cam gears are good for aftermarket cams, would they be good for Type-S cams? Or would we be able to just stick with our stock ones?

thats a good question, somebody answer it, cause i don't know the answer, i would expect no cause its still a stock cam just a japanese one.

axion68 · 02-12-2003, 04:22 PM

I remember reading a post where someone had cam gears on stock cams and tuned them at the track. They gained quite a bit (don't recall the numbers), but they really need to be tuned on a dyno. I'm sure they could help the stock cams, but what you are doing is redistributing the power to a different range (right?). Is you are constantly in high rpms you want power there, however if you are coming out of corners a little slower and are lower in rpm's more midrange would help.

axio · 02-12-2003, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by geerboy69

thats a good question, somebody answer it, cause i don't know the answer, i would expect no cause its still a stock cam just a japanese one.

It should help because the Japanese Type-S cams, while yes, being stock on the Japanese Type-S, aren't the same cams that we have on our ludes here. They're more agressive than the ones we have. If you picked up a set of Type-S cams, I'd get cam gears to tune them. If you had just stock cams though, I wouldn't really bother. they're not gonna do much to stock cams.