Cam

Head: cam

5/19/6

In the beginning, when this head was purchased it was supposed to be on Kurt's car engine but then the car that was started was halted and the truck began. That car is still here it's just an empty shell, literally! The truck project began and when it was time to make a decision about the cylinder head this head was put on the truck engine. Then 6 months later Kurt wanted a car again...... ok back up to winter '05 -before the truck. Kurt was talking with TimC about a cam he wanted for his car, it was to have some pretty high lift. Tim said it would have to idle pretty high and they discussed some more details and after a few more calls and several weeks... the cam was made. Initially we wanted a fwd blank ( with the stub on the rear not cut off, that's back when we were talking about using a dsm crank angle sensor on the rear of the head to use a dsm "link" ecu for mpi and wanted the stub to have a slot cut to fit that sensor but that was all scrapped ) but that cam was made and the stub got cut off by accident by the cam grinder. Hummmm, ok he still wanted the fwd cam so Tim had another one ground and I said I'd take the one that the tail stub was cut off ( meaning it was now from what most people see when they look at a g54b cam ) so it was now for rwd and he didn't think anyone would want a cam with that extreme lift. Now we just pulled the head off the truck motor yesterday and fit the rwd cam ( as now the fwd dsm "link" computer is a dead idea- and probably rightly so ) in to see what it would do and if there would be any clearance issues etc. To make the cam work the stock adjuster were not going to cut it. There were only a few threads holding the locking nut in place and that wasn't going to be good enough. We already had the lash caps on last fall since some said the stainless valves would mushroom but still when you see that little stub of a screw mashing and sliding around on that cap it just doesn't look very good. The lash caps I got were from a VW supply store -old VWs use 8mm dia. valves which is also the diameter of a g54b valve. The caps fit great but then we learned they weren't even necessary but left them on there anyway. VWs use some different valve train parts..... they have a rocker adjuster screw that has a pivot foot when they use stainless valves and had been used decades before in Porsche engines. I've seen some that have a ball foot and some with the butt end of a screw like our motors have. Several months ago, I was talking on the telephone to an ebay seller I know that lives in Australia about getting some more Magna distributors (like we are using in the truck for the mpi conversion) and we talked about Magna heads and some other gossip and he told me he had a site started and found a guy that lives in New York to be a broker of sorts for his parts. He told me the site link and said to look at his "elephant feet" I said "what?" Well he said what they were and they were quiet and lasted much longer and didn't need frequent adjusting like the stock rocker screws. His site name is http://www.partstuff.com/ and he also had those rocker feet on ebay but he was asking 200.00 for a set, wow! I searched google and found elephant feet were used on Porsche engines.... and I found them, there are some at this link for sale: http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=1411 OK, I wanted some of those but like YESTERDAY to get this cam to work better so it could go on the car. I stopped at a place about 30min. from me -here's their website: http://www.buggyworks.org/ I walked in there today, I had never stopped at this place so I had no idea what was there, "you heard of something called an Elephants foot?" she pointed over down one row and said, "yes we have some, there are a few different ones right over there". That just made my day :) There were three different types, two were the same, BUGWORKS I think was the brand, one was a little longer than the other but both had an open hollow foot. I didn't think those would do the trick and there was one other and it was the solid foot and it was a bit longer and that's exactly what I needed. Someone had brought them back and they wouldn't fit or something and she didn't have the package and said she could get more. That brand was EMPI or something like that. Got those home today and a dial indicator that has more travel than the one I had because we couldn't get the lift measurement yesterday but got it tonight. It's right where Kurt asked Tim to make it -the lift is .343 making that .480 if used with the stock 1.4 ratio rocker arms. The duration is supposed to be around 300 or a little more. Now don't go jumping to conclusions about that 569rwhp car in California because we have had these two cams for at least 8 months and I knew of those Elephant feet way back last winter so don't think we copied something but I think it's nice to know that these parts will work too. It's great that someone has already ran a cam very similar to this one and is using those Elephant feet adjusters. I don't know how it's all going to work out but from what I mocked up this evening and checked the setup, there is .25mm clearance under the spring retainer to the top of the oil seal. This in only on number one intake I haven't checked the rest but we will. Sure don't want oil being mashed into the crack around the seal and end up with a smoke machine. I think we'll grind a tiny bit off the underside of each retainer and test fit every one. That gives Kurt something to do tomorrow, lol. Here's the pics.

click to enlarge