what does degree in a cam mean?
Launching!
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 272
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From: Cincinnati, Ohio
Re: what does degree in a cam mean? As stated above, it is to ensure that the grind is correct. However, you're not just dealing with the possibility of someone making a mistake when cutting the cam, but also packaging, shipping etc etc.
Basically, you install the cam and use a degree wheel and dial indicator (yes you need some other equipment too) to bring the cam to it's advertised lift, and compare to see if you are at the actual valve timing that your cam card advertises. If not, you will need to advance or retard the cam to achieve that valve timing. Otherwise, your torque/hp peaks will move around on you, and piston to valve clearance could be affected.
Basically, you install the cam and use a degree wheel and dial indicator (yes you need some other equipment too) to bring the cam to it's advertised lift, and compare to see if you are at the actual valve timing that your cam card advertises. If not, you will need to advance or retard the cam to achieve that valve timing. Otherwise, your torque/hp peaks will move around on you, and piston to valve clearance could be affected.
Re: what does degree in a cam mean? As 1999 said for example...
Cam doctor is used to determine specs of how the cam is actually ground to confirm it's what it's supposed to be. This is when you find out that 224 XE-R w/.581 lift 114 LSA cam with 4 degrees of advance is really a 113.2 LSA cam and was ground sligthly retarded and only has 3.1 degrees of advance, and is 224.3 degrees of duration @50 with .580 lift. This data can effect how you want to set up the cam when you degree it in.
The above XE-R installed dot to dot would probably end up with 3 degress of advance, by degreeing you'd know it was ground due to manufacturing variance with a little retard so by degreeing you could adjust for it being 1 degree off and get your full 4 degrees of advance.
Cam doctor is used to determine specs of how the cam is actually ground to confirm it's what it's supposed to be. This is when you find out that 224 XE-R w/.581 lift 114 LSA cam with 4 degrees of advance is really a 113.2 LSA cam and was ground sligthly retarded and only has 3.1 degrees of advance, and is 224.3 degrees of duration @50 with .580 lift. This data can effect how you want to set up the cam when you degree it in.
The above XE-R installed dot to dot would probably end up with 3 degress of advance, by degreeing you'd know it was ground due to manufacturing variance with a little retard so by degreeing you could adjust for it being 1 degree off and get your full 4 degrees of advance.
