Guys I jus took my valve cover off and to my surprize the guy who degreed my cams set the gears to -1 on the exhaust and -2.5 on the intake. I've been driving the car now for a couple months. I even had it tuned and the tuner said he couldnt get the ignition timing to 16 BTDC. The dizzy is bucked forward and he only could get it to 13 degrees BDTC.

I dont thing the guy who degreed the cams knows what he's doing, has anyone even heard of settings close to those for a b16a with the only internal mod being CTR pistons?

I'm about to follow skunk 2's guide and use the quick settings for the tuner gears with pro 1 cams which is +1.5 on the intake and +2 on the exhaust. What do you think?

 

intake +1.5 and exhaust +2. that is degrees, not marks on the gear. i have degreed a few sets of pro1's and they end up right there every time, just like skunk2 site says.

 

Do you know the history of the block and head? Has anything been milled or decked? What cam gears are they?

 

But skunk2's guide says that those settings are it terms of marks on the gears (page 17 of their catalog).

Yea I know the history of the head and block. No Milling or decking....stock valves. Jus a mild p&p on the intake and exhaust ports.

 

Jus wanna know if anyone has ever seen where the gears are retarded -1 and -2.5

 

yea sorry, those specs were marks, but only if using skunk2 tuner gears also, not all gears are made the same.

 

anyone chiming in with their settings?

 

Why don't they just grind this into the cams? Just because they want to make the "Pro Series" look like a pro has to do it? Comp has no problem grinding advance or retard into the cam itself so you can put it in "straight up". Yes, I do understand that there are many combos that require degreeing anyway but why not make it easier for the people that don't know about degreeing cams or just don't have a degree wheel? I can degree a cam(s) but it sure would be nice to have the cams pretty close for the guys that don't know how.... What's next, adjustable cam gears that you have to move 1 mark on one and 2.5 marks on the other if you are running stock cams so it looks like you have some different cams?? LOL.

To answer your question, you will only know where YOUR combination needs to be by degreeing the cams in YOUR engine. A degree wheel will get you in the ballpark but a dyno will tell you what the engine really likes.

 

You need to figure out why you can't get your distributer to sit where it needs to be first. Once you set everything up correctly at TDC (top dead centre) you will then be able to correctly degree the cams or use their quick settings. Not setting everything up correctly before this is done can and most likely will result in a bent valve(s). The guy working on your car does not sound like he knows what he's doing.

 

tuner and pro series camgears are different.

if you think they were degreed incorectly, take the motor to someone else and have it degreed. you get what you pay for, so make sure its someone reputable.

dont waste your time guessing or asking others, it will only cost you more time and trouble.

 

Thanks. Well I been driving it for a couple months now...if the valves are bent then i'll find out by tmrw. Goin to do a compression test to see wasup.

 

compression test isnt gonna help ya, do a leakdown test instead.

 

Have'nt got to do the compression or leakdown yet. Installed a fuel pressure gauge and it fluctuates between 35 and 40psi whle the engine is running. By the way my car sounds like a machine gun right through the rpm range...with no power. Like it bogs out constantly.

 

 

Not a good sign....I'm betting at least 1 bent intake valve. A fluctuating fuel pressure with an engine that bogs and sounds like a machine gun throughout the RPM range are dead give-aways.

 

i've wondered this for some time now. if honda can grind a zillion cams to run at zero, what's the problem with these aftermarket places? sure decked engines will need to be degreed but if it's all stock. is it just how they are ground that results in being a degree or two off? basically not quite as good of QC as OE honda?

 

Thing is it stated happening couple weeks ago...then my dizzy died. Replaced the dizzy and and it continued to happen. My friend swapped the plugs in cylinder 1 and 2 and everything was back to normal for 2 days. then it started to happen again.

 

Sounds to me like a hell of an excuse to sell some adjustable cam gears. I'd hope that there would be NO quality control issues with their cams. You don't have to run adjustable cam gears on some of their other cams so why would the Pro1's be different? Pretty sure it's a way to get a little more money out of you. I agree that if the block and head have not been shaved that the cams should be designed and ground so they can be installed "straight up" and be pretty close.

Swapping 2 spark plugs would have either moved the problem from one cylinder to another if it was spark related or the problem would have stayed the same if it was valve related or single cylinder spark related. It shouldn't have FIXED anything. Sounds to me like you should check your spark plug wires (terminals, impedance, etc) and make sure there isn't something wrong with them along with the rest of the ignition system.

 

the newest pro1s are a drop in cam.

 

OK here goes.
Compression test on all cylinders = 120. I questioned this but I was told that the cams I have installed causes overlap so it compression would be lower. I am still not convinced.


Next thing...plug in cylinder 1 was burned and there was oil on it. I put in a new plug again an right from the start the cylinder was still not firing. Checked the injectors and they a spraying.

They didnt have a leak down tester. Many assuptions were made...including piston rings (but there is no smoking).

Can bent valves be ruled out if i'm getting the same compression on all cylinders?

 

What's changed?

 

sounds like you're a tooth off. 120psi and the dizzy are dead give aways. the oil on the plug is bad news. before i learned how to actually setup one of these engines i did a build. basically went just like yours. 140psi, dizzy off etc. long story short the exhaust valves were bent, wrecked the guided and created oily exhaust ports and plugs

 

Ok...so basically that overlap talk was junk as I thought, who much could there be on the primary lobes? The Timing looked str8 to me when I checked. I guess I have a disassembly comming up...so then I'll do the timing from scratch and see what happens.

 

They would have reground the cams with zero'd centrelines because too many average people couldn't install their cams without problems.

 

Can anyone suggest a reason why cylinder #1 is not firing even though I have spark, fuel and compression?