RPW Cam Gears finallY...now what?

[DustyR/T]

Ok, They did not come w/ any instructions whatsoever and I know Brent would know the procedure for installation on these. So feel free to chime in if someone finds a write-up on it because I just want this motor in already damn it. lol.

[lookin]

Dusty I thought they were saying those things have problems. Or is that a different kind or something?

[Ondonti]

You need a camshaft degree kit.
Camshaft Degree Kits - summitracing.com

[mightymulhern]

You spent the money on Cam Gears and don't know what to do with them?!?

The gist is:

If you advance your cams (rotate them clockwise with respect to the sprockets so the valves open and close sooner), you will rock your power curve downward on the RPM band.

If you retard your cams (rotate them counter-clockwise with respect to the sprockets), you will rock your power curve upward on the RPM band.

This also gives you the ability to equalize them if for some reason they aren't equal due to factory tolerances.

When speaking of advancing or retarding, it doesn't take much rotation at all (think fraction of a tooth). as accurate as


As Brent said... 1st you need a degree kit.


As for what to do once you've got that, I wrote up some instructions awhile back. They are mostly accurate but not 100%. Regardless, they should be good enough to get the point across.

Degreeing your Cams


Have fun!

Mike Mulhern
Kelly-Mulhern Performance

[Ondonti]

The hardest part for me was the math for front bank of cylinders. I kept getting confused.

Tonight I worked on making marks on my cam gears. I put a mark on the gear that lines up with the aluminum center piece. Then i will make marks at stock setting (110 deg) on the aluminum, then make some other makes (probably 106 and 102)

[DustyR/T]

I know what advancing and retarding cam gears does. I figured for 300 bucks they'd come w/ instructions and the companies tell me to put them on as it and rotate them as needed but state nothing about degree wheel.

[mightymulhern]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DustyR/T I know what advancing and retarding cam gears does. I figured for 300 bucks they'd come w/ instructions and the companies tell me to put them on as it and rotate them as needed but state nothing about degree wheel.

Ahhh. Understood!

Speaking of instructions, the instructions for the degree kit I bought were on VHS and were specific to a pushrod engine. ...apparently a lot of people don't have VCRs anymore which would be a problem and many cars these days have overhead cam engines. Just a couple points I found amusing.

[DustyR/T]

I contacted RPW again and they said to talk to my cam grinder (crower) and that got me nowhere because they said It's "My responsibility as the tuner and owner" to figure this out, but when I am trying to get the answers from the companies, nobody seems to care or know. The best I have achieved thus far it " Set it up like your stock cams and make degree lines for future adjustment". Which I just might do. I'm going to take it to my machinist and see what he can do. Most likely he'll use a degree wheel of some small size if possible and notch/machine grooves precisely where they should be. It's not going to be fun by any means and not at all necessary considering how much was paid for these gears and the lack of information given-which is part my fault for not doing the research but these are supposively reputable companies. (Tearstone, RPW, etc.)

[Ondonti]

when our market is so small you cant expect much help in that regard.

I just scratched a mark into the metal gear with razor then put some whiteout in the scratch
then i will probably use some sort of permanent marker for the marks on the aluminum center piece.

Honestly I would try 106 degrees.
How big are your cams? As long as you dont have stock cams I would advance them definitely.

[DustyR/T]

Ok, WTF, My count on the stock gears are 40 teeth, vs the RPW which are 48?! How is that going to work? Did you run into this Brent?

[Ondonti]

48 teeth are sohc 24v gears. Tearstones fault or you accidentally bought them on the website.

the 12v ones are NOT on on the website and thats what I was asking you about a few months ago since you said you found them there. You have to call and make a special order.

RPW 12v cam gears are a stock mitsubishi 12v gear machined to be adjustable with that aluminum center piece.

[DustyR/T]

you have got to be kidding me! MTFer!

What if I use a 24v crank sprocket? Just a thought.

[DustyR/T]

So this is what Tearstone and RPW told me.

Tearstone
"The RPW cam gears are stock cam gears with a new center in them to be adjustable. I don’t know how the teeth would be different.


Russ Sanderlin

Tearstone Performance Solutions

http://tearstone.com"

RPW
There shouldn't be a variation in the number of teeth on the camshaft gears.
Plesae forward a photo of the stock unit and our unit side by side so I can ascertain why there is a difference in the camshaft gears

WTF!

[Ondonti]

you need to tell them you have a 12 valve NOT a 24 valve

If you dont emphasize this they wont know what you are talking about.
sohc 24v and dohc 24v cam gears both have 48 teeth so those idiots will get confused, especially tearstone since tearstone doesnt even know what the 12v motor is.

They used the wrong stock cam gear.

[Ondonti]

Is your name Wilbert Topaz? Im talking to the RPW guy right now and his response is a bit different.

The order from tearstone to RPW was for 24valve cam gears.
You need to talk to Tearstone as the order they sent to RPW was for 24v gears.