B18C1
I/H/E, Intake mani, pulleys.

Im getting Skunk2 tuner series stage 1 cams and Im gonna get cam gears too. Which ones do you guys recommend? I was thinking skunk bc i know they'll compliment each other nicely. If anybody has any with experience with a combination they used let me know whether you liked it or not..

Thanks guys!

 

cam gear is a cam gear. try to get ones with 5bolts so you have a less of a chance of it slipping. a brand name is probably more accurate on the marks then ebay crap

 

Cam gears aren't worth it with Stage 1 cams. You're better off sticking with the OEM cam gears. Good luck.

 

strage 1 or not for $100 or so to gain a bit of tq in the mid range is worth it imo. every little bit counts in n/a. if you dont plan on getting it dyno tuned then its not worth it

 

What are you smoking? Even cam gear tuning with stock cams can net you gains.

 

He's obviously never tuned those cams before....

 

Interesting. I had not heard that before. So at what point are cam gears recommended? Should you get cam gears based on what "stage" cams you are running? So what about stage 2 cams? Maybe you should only run adjustable cam gears if you run stage 3 cams or bigger.

Oh, but wait... Some manufacturer's "Stage 1" cams are bigger than another's "Stage 2" cams. At what lift/duration are adjustable cam gears required?


O.K. sarcastic comments done. We have seen significant gains tuning stock ITR cams with cam gears. Cam gears with sliding scales (Toda for example)are easier to read and tune than cam gears with a single hash mark and hash marks for -10 to +10.

 

What I meant is that its not worth 2-3 whp in the midrange in exchange of running the risk of the valves contacting the pistons. Sure, you can make "SOME" power but the real question is, is it really worth it? In addition, if he's on stock valve train (spring/retainers) then the risk of dropping a valve is much higher. But if its simply for adding appeal to your engine bay, then by all means feel free to run any brand you'd like. I've tuned multiple engines, and on a mild setup such as his, most of them don't require aftermarket cam gears to make power.

If you plan on getting aftermarket cam gears, go with the Skunk2 pro series gears so they can compliment your tuner series stage 1 cams.

 

Again, if you're only getting 2-3 whp in the midrange from adjustable cam gears, you're only tuning single cam motors. Most of the time, especially with a cam that's larger than CTR/ITR cams, you'll need them to dial in the cams to work well. I have personal experience tuning my old S2S1 cams on my mostly bolt on B16a2 and I can tell you the adjustable cam gears made a big difference in power and driveability.

Most cam gears only need to be adjusted somewhere in the +/- 0 to 4* range which is a fairly safe range. If you get stupid and start going crazy with your adjustments and end up with P2V contact, it's from stupidity, not adjustable cam gears.