So, I was contemplating putting in a thinner head gasket to bump up compression a little bit, and I read somewhere that if you lower the head closer to the block (thinner HG, deck the head) it somehow throws cam timing off a little bit. Can you adjust that without getting the adjustable cam gears? If so how?

Does it even make a difference?

 

WHy would it throw off cam timing?

 

I have the same thing going on and i was told

"No clearance or timing BELT problems but the more you remove from the head or gasket the more the valve timing gets retarded. A .030'' shave or reduction in gasket thickness is equal to 3-4 degree's retarded." orignal quote by boostfeind from turbod16.

I am still waiting for a respone on the effects and how to reverse it without a adjustable gear.

Can anyone teach a couple noobs??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by alscrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">WHy would it throw off cam timing?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Apparently just because of the reduced distance between the rotating parts. I'm just going by what I've read...

"This is also good when installing a resurfaced head, because the gear can be used to correct for timing loss (retardation) caused by the cam being closer to the crankshaft."

^^copied and pasted directly from a product description for an adjustable cam gear

But it also says that retarding the timing increases top end power while advancing the timing helps with low-midrange torque and improves throttle response. So really I guess it's just a matter of what you're looking for, whether you even really want to fix it.