degreeing cams?

Owned · Jan 16, 2007

can you degree the cams with the heads off the car? or do you need to have the pistons and block to do it. and if anyone has a article on how to do it would be a great help

SaleenGT2001 · Jan 16, 2007

i think the heads must be on the engine

hotmustang331 · Jan 16, 2007

^+1 heads should be on the car in our case.

04YELLOWGT · Jan 16, 2007

is it that big of a deal to degree them? I just orderd VT Stage 2 Blower cams and I wasnt going to degree them.

SaleenGT2001 · Jan 16, 2007

you should always degree them. i believe this will help avoid any PTV clearance problems

Stan Weiss · Jan 17, 2007

Owned said:
can you degree the cams with the heads off the car? or do you need to have the pistons and block to do it. and if anyone has a article on how to do it would be a great help

The answer is no. Make sure what ever instructions you find start by finding TDC and zeroing the point and degree wheel.

san~man · Jan 17, 2007

04YELLOWGT said:
is it that big of a deal to degree them? I just orderd VT Stage 2 Blower cams and I wasnt going to degree them.

Not a good idea.

SaleenGT2001 · Jan 17, 2007

i think you will run a risk of bending a valve. someone correct me if i'm wrong but i think someone one here was having PTV problems in the higher rpm's with those cams

03ghoststang · Jan 17, 2007

you can get away with out deegreing the cams but they have to be a stg 1 or sotck and everything would have to bemarked down and put back the same way it came off but it has complications, otherwise anything that has more lift or opens/closes the valve earlier/later you must deegre them

04YELLOWGT · Jan 17, 2007

sorry to steal this thread but what all do I need to buy to degree them?

LaserRed01GT · Jan 17, 2007

Don't even think about not degreeing your camshafts upon installation. It is a critical step. Doesn't matter if it's a Stage 1 or Stage 999 camshaft, they must be degreed.

At minimum, you will need a dial indicator, piston stop (spark plug hole), degree wheel, cam checking fixture, valve check springs.

For beginners attempting to degree a cam for the first time, Comp Cams makes a pretty good beginner kit. It is part # Comp Cams 4796.

EDIT: One more thing. I would also suggest gettting a set of adjustable cam gears. Without them it is nearly impossible to "dial in" teh camshafts correctly. Fidanza and Comp make some good ones.

DropTopPony · Jan 17, 2007

LaserRed01GT said:
Don't even think about not degreeing your camshafts upon installation. It is a critical step. Doesn't matter if it's a Stage 1 or Stage 999 camshaft, they must be degreed.

At minimum, you will need a dial indicator, piston stop (spark plug hole), degree wheel, cam checking fixture, valve check springs.

For beginners attempting to degree a cam for the first time, Comp Cams makes a pretty good beginner kit. It is part # Comp Cams 4796.

EDIT: One more thing. I would also suggest gettting a set of adjustable cam gears. Without them it is nearly impossible to "dial in" teh camshafts correctly. Fidanza and Comp make some good ones.

they sure do...
i sold mine when i saw a thread on MD with several failures.
modcamponents makes a good set.

fidanza

Fast Eddie 41 · Jan 17, 2007

DropTopPony said:
they sure do...
i sold mine when i saw a thread on MD with several failures.
modcamponents makes a good set.

fidanza

The only way a billet cam gear fails is due to improper installation. Period....and don't even bother trying to tell us that they were installed correctly because I know better. Those are billet gears not cast, and it's even evident in your pictures due to the nature of that fracture that they were either significantly over torqued or you degreed the camshafts wrong. We know several Fidanza dealers here in Central and South Florida and trust me when I say this.... there are literally hundreds out Fidanza cam gears out there with not a single problem. We have installed Fidanza flywheels, clutches, and gears for years now without ant problems.

I can post pictures all day long of broken parts in our shop... Does that automatically mean that the company that made those parts is somehow incompetent or has a widespread problem with parts failing? The answer is no.

hotmustang331 · Jan 17, 2007

Yikes!!!!!!!!

Although I have to SLIGHTLY dissagree with laserred in the area of "you must degree any stage cams". Stg 1 cams will NOT have PTV contact....there has been one case with those cams, and the guy accedentally advanced the cams 1 tooth (around 17*s) .
Even Scott @ VTengine will tell you that there has not been one single case of PTV contact when those cams are installed @ 0*s (straight up).
Although I do highly recommend it for the sake of increased performance, its not required.....however all other cams should be mandatory, as they ALL have greater actual valve overlap and the same or more lift as the VT stg 1 cams and there are a few cases of PTV contact with msot of them (262s being the exception on PTV I believe...but not 100% sure).

BTW we didnt degree my cams....didnt even pull the front cover. Only thing that came off were the valve covers . Thats what I like about the cams, such an easy install.
Otherwise I wouldnt have done it, because if I were pulling the front cover down I would have went ahead and got aftermarket valve springs and stg 2 cams.

hotmustang331 · Jan 17, 2007

Fast Eddie 41 said:
The only way a billet cam gear fails is due to improper installation. Period....and don't even bother trying to tell us that they were installed correctly because I know better. Those are billet gears not cast, and it's even evident in your pictures due to the nature of that fracture that they were either significantly over torqued or you degreed the camshafts wrong. We know several Fidanza dealers here in Central and South Florida and trust me when I say this.... there are literally hundreds out Fidanza cam gears out there with not a single problem. We have installed Fidanza flywheels, clutches, and gears for years now without ant problems.

I can post pictures all day long of broken parts in our shop... Does that automatically mean that the company that made those parts is somehow incompetent or has a widespread problem with parts failing? The answer is no.

Makes me feel much better about my Fidanze aluminum flywheel . It looked like an awsome piece....only problem is that the starter ring is rusting on me . We have the starter out, waiting for the headers.

Think that will through the ballence off?

Dusstbuster · Jan 17, 2007

So someone mind informing me exactly what degreeing cams is? I've read some articles about it but just get bored and then worry that I did something wrong with my cam install even though the car ran fine for the short time it was running before winter. After seeing the inside of the valve cover, doing the swap i'm under the impression that cams/cam sprockets only mate 1 way due to the "male" hump on the sprocket fitting into the "female" slot on the cam? If nothing moves as far as the timing chain goes, you retain the stock cam sprocket, and put the new cam into the stock sprocket the only way a cam could possibly fit, how would PTV ever be an issue? Are aftermarket cams allowed a certain amount of error on the lobes that you have to check for or what?

04YELLOWGT · Jan 17, 2007

Ive talked to two guys that have built numerous engines and they both have told its not that big of a deal and that they have never degreed the cams they put in their engines so I dont know what to do.

hotmustang331 · Jan 17, 2007

Degree your stg 2 blower cams....most likely they wont hit, but thats not a very good approach when putting them in an engine....especially a supercharged one. If you had VT st 1 cams (which make great blower cams for lower boost BTW...only have a total of 5*s of valve overlap) then I would be fine with you not degreeing them.

DropTopPony · Jan 17, 2007

Fast Eddie 41 said:
The only way a billet cam gear fails is due to improper installation. Period....and don't even bother trying to tell us that they were installed correctly because I know better. Those are billet gears not cast, and it's even evident in your pictures due to the nature of that fracture that they were either significantly over torqued or you degreed the camshafts wrong. We know several Fidanza dealers here in Central and South Florida and trust me when I say this.... there are literally hundreds out Fidanza cam gears out there with not a single problem. We have installed Fidanza flywheels, clutches, and gears for years now without ant problems.

I can post pictures all day long of broken parts in our shop... Does that automatically mean that the company that made those parts is somehow incompetent or has a widespread problem with parts failing? The answer is no.

the bolts loosen up and the center walks causing ptv etc...my builder steenracing won't use them unless you insist. It is a flawed design...modcamponents makes a far superior product.

http://fidanza-is-crap.com/

DropTopPony · Jan 17, 2007

http://forums.************.com/showthread.php?t=91100&highlight=fidanza

replace the **** with modular depot

degreeing cams?

New Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Member

O-G

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Banned

Noob Slayer

Attachments

New Member

Active Member

Active Member

I love meat more than anything! I just have a spec

Active Member

Active Member

Noob Slayer

Noob Slayer

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency