How to Guide: Degreeing Cams on 6G72 w/ Pictures

[familyMAN]

I would try a different cylinder on rear also just to make sure. I've heard BC quality control isn't great and my webcams (DR) had one cam wildly different cylinder to cylinder. I just did a basic average between cylinders.

The webcam calculator is such a huge time saver and kept my head from hurting from the calcs!

[Stealth_RT]

Yeah, just got off the phone with Ray and he said the same thing about BC cams, that they aren't made very well. I'll do the other 3 cams and see if they're all way off, and check another cylinder for the rear intake. Maybe. Or I'll just put the stock ones back in and degree those to correct for the heads being decked. I'd still like to know how far off all the BC lobes are. If, say, all the cylinders are off the same amount on the rear intake, then correcting with the cam gear should make it work. If only some of the lobes are off that far, then the cam is junk.

[Fakepower]

With my BC cams, I had one cam that was so far off spec I sent it back. Then I had them send me back a different one. It was much better. and I got it dialed in. The guy at BC that i dealt with was nice but he basically placed all the blame on me and my methods, even when he got the messed up cam back he said it was perfect. When I installed the new one they sent back, it was immediately obvious this cam was made much better.

[Stealth_RT]

I don't really have the time to be sending bad cams back to BC, wait for new one(s), and hope they are better. Worst case, I'll put the stock ones back in and try to get a refund.

[J. Fast]

I just finished doing mine and all were set without touching the degree wheel, once it's set you don't do anything. Sure you're using cylinder #4? This is the middle rear one.

Anyways just to update. I got the cam sheet from Matt for my DR Street cams and after speaking with Ray he said to degree them using the lobe center which was 110°. Results for adjusting them are as follows:
#1 Intake = +.4°
#1 Exhaust = +1
#4 Intake = -.1
#4 Exhaust = -.5

Any idea what your before and after cylinder compression numbers were? Are they higher or lower than what you started with? They way I was taught going into degree wrk blind is check cranking compression before and after you degree. The higher the compression rises the better the thrttle response.

[oohnoo]

Sorry no idea.

Any idea what your before and after cylinder compression numbers were? Are they higher or lower than what you started with? They way I was taught going into degree wrk blind is check cranking compression before and after you degree. The higher the compression rises the better the thrttle response.

[Stealth_RT]

Went and checked all the cylinders on both intake cams, and the cams read consistently on every cylinder. So I lucked out there. The rear intake cam, I must have had the cam gear off 1 tooth when setting up the timing belt. If I rotate that cam by 1 tooth, the gear will only need 1-2 deg of correction.

To anyone attempting to degree their cams, I highly recommend using a second dial indicator down through the spark plug hole to directly read that cylinder's TDC. So much easier to keep track of TDC, especially if you are checking more cylinders than just 1 and 4.

[Ninja Performance]

To throw a wrench at everyone's monkey.

3sx adjustable cam gears, and maybe other aftermarket gears, have now been shown to be off 2.5 degrees. Set at 0 they are actually at +2.5 degrees advance.

So anyone degreeing cams with a stock cam gear then putting on the adjustable cam gear set to what they found needed to be set to degree the cam needs to find out where the 0 degree starting point on the adjustable cam they are using is. For the 3sx gear that has this issue that would mean setting the gear to -2.5 retarded to make it actually 0, then add/subtract the degrees you need from there.

-Chris

[Italo Grasso]

Just my two cents here but please correct me if i'm wrong...the stock cam CL's are 109.5 intake and 106.5 exhaust. Now the +1,-3 are based on the stock CL's so that would put the new CL's at 107.5 intake and 100.5 Exhaust. When degreeing cams most people place them at +1.-3 so i would imagine most people don't consider the manufactures recommended Cam CL's and i'm not sure this is always the best thing to do. +1,-3 introduces increased overlap which in most cases hurts turbo vehicles and i believe these numbers were based on the stock duration cams. When we change cams to add duration the overlap is increased even more with these settings..I'm not sure i understand the 3sx claims of more hp with +1 -3.

[Ninja Performance]

Just my two cents here but please correct me if i'm wrong...the stock cam CL's are 109.5 intake and 106.5 exhaust. Now the +1,-3 are based on the stock CL's so that would put the new CL's at 107.5 intake and 100.5 Exhaust. When degreeing cams most people place them at +1.-3 so i would imagine most people don't consider the manufactures recommended Cam CL's and i'm not sure this is always the best thing to do. +1,-3 introduces increased overlap which in most cases hurts turbo vehicles and i believe these numbers were based on the stock duration cams. When we change cams to add duration the overlap is increased even more with these settings..I'm not sure i understand the 3sx claims of more hp with +1 -3.

I have spent a LOT of time on the dyno testing cam timing. On stock turbos and cams, bolt on turbos stock cams and aftermarket, all the way to 1000AWHP setups with big cams. I always came up with +1 -3 as the best increase in power. I thought it odd, but that is what they all liked. I think some of the larger setups like 2.5 instead of 3 but it wasn't a huge amount.

-Chris