Back to back tested: Cams

Hi all.

Hopefully this is going to be of great help to and interest to all. I was going to wait for Matt @ TDF to post this up but it seems he's too busy at the moment.

Okay last month i booked my car in with TDF for more power. We decided to attack the camshaft setup as Matt was sure it was strangling the ITBs either due to lack of lift or incorrect timing.

At the same time we came to an agreement where labour would be FOC and in return he can use my car to develope some base knowledge of the different cam setups avaliable for the 197/200.

Right so tested was a combination of the ever popular CatCam 402s, the shrick billets and the more outrageous CatCam race profiles. The VVT would also be played around with, or in other words deleted to prevent premature wear from the wild cams.

The testing was done on the same car, same dyno and same conditions wherever possible with only the camshafts being different. Each time the car was custom mapped to that specific camshaft to allow perfectly true readings. CatCam vernier pulleys were fitted and the engine mount was laser cut out so the pulleys could be adjusted with the engine fully built on the dyno! This ensured timing was critically ideal and each camshaft could even be advanced and retarded to the degree to find the most avaliable power. Never before has each cam setup been so methodically tested!

Anyway heres what was found from the best three setups:

- CAT 402 with vernier pulley on the exhaust cam, standard VVT on the inlet cam. 2 degrees retarded (to increase cam overlap) with VVT map to suit gave 220.8bhp.

- Shricks gave 220.4bhp with similar setup to above.

- Cat 402 with 403 exhaust cam gave 218.8bhp, retarding back to almost 402 settings it gave the same power as 402.

Cat 403 inlet could not be fitted due to lack of piston clearance, as quoted by the man himself:

'The limitations of the stock piston with regards to available lift is what's stopping us going any further. With large valve cutouts we could see another 5-6bhp with 1mm additional lift but just no room available to do it!'


Hope this proved useful to somebody. I can try and get dyno charts if anyone wishes to contest the authenticity of the results, as most do on here.

Ben.
 
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Interesting how the Schricks are supposed to give better power.

This is what was expected. They were flown in from Germany to be included in the test in time with great anticipation. However as you can see in this particular test they didn't offer any gains over the 402s. When you consider the price difference too that's quite a dissapointment!
 
Indeed. I'd be pi$$ed if I'd paid the extra tbh.

However, cant the Schricks be found for a similar price to the 402s?

Also, do you have any vids of your setup Ben, with the cams?
 
Did the schricks make more torque? I dont understand this as the profile is quite different?

Maybe there is more difference without boddies?
 
does seem odd,same power and a rough idle,really wished i'd gone for the schricks when i heard about them,but now,hmmmm! excellent report ben
 
so your engine is now repaired?

what was up with it?

the testing is very good and gives some ideas of the cams in a particular engine but the results will be different in an engine without itb
 
Pretty sure Woody had the valve seats milled wider and fitted bigger valves on his engine so afaik its possible.
 
This is a massively great thread for those (me included) who are thinking to go for the cams upgrade and thanks for posting Ben.

You see, there is plenty of feedback when it comes to such upgrades from people who had gone through that route but such comparison ''under the exact same set up'' feedback is VERY rare and priceless. We all know the huge power differences between cars/dynos so to make a decision between schricks and cats was a bit difficult till now.

I reckon you must have spent hours for this kind of testing. Fitting cams, remap, test it, dyno it and then the same back again. Good stuff mate, really god stuff and the results speak volumes. I'd love to see the graphs if possible to compare the overall performance against the peak power but I think I've made up my mind for which cams I'm going for...

Once again, top work Ben and thanks for sharing that with us.
 
so the pistons and valves are holding us back? and they cant be altered?

Im currently having wossner forged pistons fitted with deeper valve pockets @ same compression ratio. This will allow me to run the 403 on the inlet aswell as the exhaust and in turn requiring VVT delete and vernier pulleys both sides.

I'm aiming for 230bhp mark.

@ Foxspeed: this was pre engine bang on the track :smile:
 
Great write up Ben, very interesting to see how the cats compare to the shricks. The results are closer than I thought they would be, there does seem to be a perception that Shricks give more than that so good to see a true comparison.

Can't wait to hear the results of your new goodies. Guessing your not selling the car now then?