Looks like I am going with a mild cam setup very soon. Most likely I will be installing a set of Skunk stage 1 cams. I will be installing them with cam gears of course (probably STR). My question is do I have to run a VAFC or other tuning device right away? I know to really make power off the cams I will need to tune them of course. Waiting until I can get a VAFC really isn't a problem but if I can run the cams safely until that time I will want to of course go ahead and install them when I have the time. Thanks in advance.

 

No VAFC is needed. I ran Skunk Stage 1's with the stock ecu and no vafc and still put over 190 to the wheels. Cam gear tuning and a good header is all that's necessary.

 

I didn't put 190 to the wheels with my Skunk2 Stage 1 cams but the VAFC did not yield any real noticable gains. I really dont think it is necessary, especially with a chipped ECU. I ran Kenji's ECU and the VAFC only helped me to lean out the fuel a little which gave me slightly better fuel economy, but netted very minimal power. If I can find my dyno charts I will send them to you if you would like.

Good luck,
Brian

 

how much power were you putting down?

 

I gained pretty good power with the HyTech header and stock cams using a VAFC. A 2500 RPM wide powerband was able to be tuned in. It depends mostly on your engine package, you can make power without it for sure.

It doesn't do much for peak power but you can probably make a good amount more power at certain areas of the powerband especially before 5700 RPM with it. I was up 22whp at 5500 RPM after the VAFC was tuned. Peak power wasn't affected much at all, the cam gears did the trick on that end.

Since the Skunk2 cams have some pretty weak low end cam lobes (like stock), they will likely be losing power at 5700 RPM and you will be able to gain alot of it back by altering the VTEC engagement to an earlier point and changing fuel settings to compensate. Of course, bragging about peak power is much easier than bragging about a stronger powerband.

 

Hey guys, im thinin of skunk2 stage 1, with aem cai, dc jdm header test pipe and cam gears, so do you think id need the v-afc or not then? im thinin of getting one but if its not a big difference than i probably won't.....

 

You won't NEED one, but you would get more power out of the cams if you have one. That's assume that you know how to tune with the vafc.

 

And if you dont know how to tune it, dont try. You will do more harm then good trying to figure it out on the butt dyno.

 

But we do have a dyno available here so can't i use that? I would never try to tune it with the "butt dyno" lol