Adjustable Cam Gears On A Rb20 Worth It?

[yoshiii335]

Hello I did a search for cam gears on this forum and cant really find anything.

Are adjustable cam gears worth it on a rb20? Will it help with torque?

I have a stock rb20 with stock turbo. I have a full turbo back exhaust with sports cat, and a pod and return to stock piping fmic.

I am putting in a boost controller soon and possibily a rb25 turbo.

Edited June 18, 2014 by yoshiii335

[GTSBoy]

Tiny benefit with everything stock, and therefore not worth the cost or effort.

Here's a suggestion for the turbo. Buy an RB20 turbo from someone in Australia (like on these forums, or Gumtree, or eBay, or whatever). It doesn't matter if it's broken, because you would get the seller to send it to Hypergear in Melbourne. He would highflow it for you and send it to you in Japan. Much better idea than running a ceramic turbo again (the RB25 turbo).

[Ben C34]

Yes. They might be worth it.

Depending on what you consider worth it

You would have to spend time in the dyno to see what the engine wants.

[yoshiii335]

Tiny benefit with everything stock, and therefore not worth the cost or effort.

Here's a suggestion for the turbo. Buy an RB20 turbo from someone in Australia (like on these forums, or Gumtree, or eBay, or whatever). It doesn't matter if it's broken, because you would get the seller to send it to Hypergear in Melbourne. He would highflow it for you and send it to you in Japan. Much better idea than running a ceramic turbo again (the RB25 turbo).

How much does it cost to highflow it?

So adustable cam gears work when the boost is up?

Yes. They might be worth it.

Depending on what you consider worth it

You would have to spend time in the dyno to see what the engine wants.

What do you mean what the engine wants?

[Ben C34]

What cam timing adjustments the engine wants.

If any.

[yoshiii335]

What cam timing adjustments the engine wants.

If any.

oh ok

[GTSBoy]

How much does it cost to highflow it?

So adustable cam gears work when the boost is up?

What do you mean what the engine wants?

Too many questions in too many threads.

Why do you not use tools like google to look up Hypergear and find out what his highflow service costs?

Adjustable cam gears on stock cams on an unopened motor will definitely give you SOME result. As Ben said. But the problem is that the result will likely be too small to justify the cost and effort when you could use the money and time more productively on other mods. What Ben means by "what the engine wants" is exactly that. You can really only find out where to set adjustable cam gears to get the result you're after (whether that's max top end power or a little more bite at the bottom at the expense of top end power) by adjusting them while at the dyno and doing runs to see what results you get. The result you get depends on what your engine is happy with, and that depends on what turbo you're running, how much boost that turbo might be making, etc.

But it's not simply a question of "do cam gears give you more when you have the boost wound up?" Really, the strict answer to that is yes, because when the boost is wound up everything gets bigger, including the size of changes from non-boost related mods. But, no, cam gears do not become more important as boost rises.

[yoshiii335]

Too many questions in too many threads.

Why do you not use tools like google to look up Hypergear and find out what his highflow service costs?

Adjustable cam gears on stock cams on an unopened motor will definitely give you SOME result. As Ben said. But the problem is that the result will likely be too small to justify the cost and effort when you could use the money and time more productively on other mods. What Ben means by "what the engine wants" is exactly that. You can really only find out where to set adjustable cam gears to get the result you're after (whether that's max top end power or a little more bite at the bottom at the expense of top end power) by adjusting them while at the dyno and doing runs to see what results you get. The result you get depends on what your engine is happy with, and that depends on what turbo you're running, how much boost that turbo might be making, etc.

But it's not simply a question of "do cam gears give you more when you have the boost wound up?" Really, the strict answer to that is yes, because when the boost is wound up everything gets bigger, including the size of changes from non-boost related mods. But, no, cam gears do not become more important as boost rises.

Thanks I understand now.

[hypergear]

How much does it cost to highflow it?

So adustable cam gears work when the boost is up?

To high flow it will cost you $850 including braided oil line. I do have a couple of different combinations, smaller profiles is more relatively more responsive then bigger combinations.

Power wise smallest profile can support 210rwkws with full boost around 3800RPMs, while the larger profiles can handle 240rwkws with full boost around 4500RPMs.

The adjustable cam gears helps a tinny bit of mid range. But not a very tangible amount using stock cam shafts.

[yoshiii335]

To high flow it will cost you $850 including braided oil line. I do have a couple of different combinations, smaller profiles is more relatively more responsive then bigger combinations.

Power wise smallest profile can support 210rwkws with full boost around 3800RPMs, while the larger profiles can handle 240rwkws with full boost around 4500RPMs.

The adjustable cam gears helps a tinny bit of mid range. But not a very tangible amount using stock cam shafts.

I checked out your site, nice stuff. So stock full boost on the rb20 turbo is at 5600 rpm, so having a turbo come on full boost by 4500 is good, correct? Do you have an option to get me to 400hp with similar responses for street?

[GTSBoy]

No, stock full boost on ab RB20 is more like 3000 rpm. If you had to wait untiul 5600 for a standard car to get to 10 psi it would be the most epic fail of all time.