Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

One of the next things I plan to do with my car is install some cam gears so have begun to do some research.

MATERIALS:

Looking at the advertising speels a lot of companies (recently HKS comes to mind) promote the materials they use citing fancy metal names (duralymium sp?) that the layman has never heard of.

Why? Do cheaper, supposedly less quality gears brake, wear out etc? I ask as my car is from 1987 with what I assume are the original factory gears and they look fine. What are the factory ones made of?

DESIGN:

Cruising around the net looking at images of different brands of gears the one that stood out as odd was HKS in the fact they only have 3 bolts to tighten the adjustable part as opposed to most others having 4 or 5 and I think I saw one with six.

Isnt it obvious that the more securing bolts the better? Or am I missing something? Why would HKS, a supposedly reputable a/m parts supplier skimp in that area?

FAILURES:

Lastly, who has had a bad expereince with cam gears? Either failure of some sort, premature wear etc? What exactly happened and what brand were they?

Just hoping to get some decent feedback and maybe help a few others who want more than an anodised cog that matches there colour scheme.

Also would like to hear from people who have had custom cam gears made. Material used, pricing etc.

Thanks in advance.

Jayson.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/73956-cam-gears-materialsdesignfailures/
Share on other sites

Although not from personal experience i have heard of failures with HKS gears on more than one occation and it has always been related to the teeth on the gear as the material seems to be too soft and wears quickly. Has anyone else heard of this?

I am currently using Tomei and have had no issues.

On the "series 1" design of the HKS cam gears, the metal used for the teeth the belt sits on is too soft, and I have seen a few which have worn away pretty quickly (under 15,000kms). You can identify the series 1 design as having the purple center and blue outer edges.

The "series 2" design is made out of the same metals as Tomei's cam gears, and I havnt heard or seen any problems with the Tomei ones.

Duralium is simply a variant of aluminium that has increased wear resistance due to its hardness (As the name suggests).

Tomei have used it for ages & now HKS have come into line.

If you are worried about wear the answer is pretty simple: LEAVE THE TIMING COVER ON YOUR ENGINE!

I would have thought a lot of the wank associated with the material would also be for weight reasons. Less weight = less reciprical mass on the drive system, which is a good thing.

I would have also thought 3 bolts was pretty strong to hold the whole gear in place, considering your tensioners only have one. Bolts don't often snap unless put under extreme heat, in front of the engine is relatively cool (otherwise the timing belt would also be not be made of rubber in this case)

If you are worried about wear the answer is pretty simple: LEAVE THE TIMING COVER ON YOUR ENGINE!

why? wouldn't it make more sense to leave it off so you can spot the wear? or is that what you mean??

Leaving the cam belt cover off lets dust and dirt in, wears the belt and cam gears very fast. I have even seen a small rock get caught in between the belt and the pulley, ripped the belt to pieces. And many valves hit many pistons.

The Stagea needed a cambelt service, so I figured I might as well stick an adjustable exhaust camshaft pulley on there while I was doing that. I ordered a Tomei pulley from Nengun, but apparently they don't make them any more. So I opted for a HKS one made of the new material. It weighs 350 grams (standard camshaft pulley is 550 grams) which is quite a bit lighter than the Jun ones I have that are going on the new RB31DET.

I haven't done a propper hardness test on the teeth on HKS pulleys, but the scratch test comes up pretty good. I am not concerned with 3 bolts, I always use Locktite on them anyway.:cheers:

The OS giken cam gears are made out ouf the same material as the Tomei gears, but are alot cheaper in price, almost half the price.

damn you must be getting your os giken cheap cos i payed under $200 a piece for my tomei wheels

i got my os giken adjustable cam gear $120 brand new in box privated on Firesport.com, i two used locktite however left my top cam cover off. I dont see this to be a problem dont live near salty water and i know not to put my hands there so i see there to be know real problem

i got my os giken adjustable cam gear $120 brand new in box privated on Firesport.com, i two used locktite however left my top cam cover off. I dont see this to be a problem dont live near salty water and i know not to put my hands there so i see there to be know real problem

The RTA are resurfacing the road near my house, I found a small rock on top of my airfilter last week.

Be carefull:cheers:

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Seat of the pants assessment of the new intake: The car is way less "doughy" when hitting the loud pedal, especially off idle when stopped or in traffic, I did use a cheapo lazer thermal thingo to measure the temp around where the pod filter got its air, it was between 55 - 60°C, in saying this the car was shut off and not moving, so the OEM intake pipe was not supplying any fresh air to where the pod was when the car was at least moving A weird bonus was induction noise on the throttle in the cabin increased a bit,  I was worried that I was actually going to lose some of that induction noise I love so much, outside though, when I got the daughter to do a WOT drive by pass for me, the induction noise has increased alot when on the throttle, not quite ITB doort, but well up there I'm extremely happy with the results and have been exploring the country roads in the region  As for house mods: 1.New front fence is up and is awesome, it really upgraded how the joint looks from the street, and the added security is nice 2. Electricians have replace some interior lights, and with more lighting in the garage, a few new motion detecting lights out the front above the garage, front room, and at the front door, which I have already found heaps helpful coming and going, also now has fancy pants CCTV all round the house The only hold point for power though is the solar and batteries due to supply issues, although this will happen over the next few weeks 3. I have done a heap of landscaping out the front and I'm almost ready to do a new small retaining wall with some nice blocks to replace the brick and cemented in rocks around the raised garden beds cemented in river stone "was the fashion at the time" the house was built. I currently have a pallet of retaining wall blocks and 2 bulka bags of 20mm blue metal to replace the wood chip that is in the raised garden beds around the house 4. I now have 3 big raised garden beds for out the back to grow some vegetables, about 70cm high, 200cm long and 100cm wide 5. My 2 compost bins are already pretty full with brown, green and kitchen waste from the landscaping I'vedone so far, but they will probably take a few months to break down, so anything else that gets chopped, trimmed, and kitchen waste will just start filling the base of the raised garden beds to about 30cm before I start throwing 40cm of good compost, and stuff, for the vegetables to grow in, I'll need a few ton of compost and soil, but the local supplier can sent me bulka bags of the stuff Basically the logs, wood chips and a few strategically placed rocks for drainage, will give the beds some good organic materials down low to break down over time, and they will hold moisture during the warmer months to save the water in my big arse water tank if we don't get alot of rain So, all in all, the car and house mods are going well, and I'm really enjoying being retired, I sleep in too 0700 and slowly plod around inside until I feel like actually doing anything, and only work in the yard for as long as want, which has actually been alot over the last few weeks,  although when you look at it, it seems that not a huge amount of work has been done,  until I look at the before I started the work pics Happy days and good times indeed 
    • hahaha yeah. Plan is to get side skirts and probably just rear pods. But going to do them one-by-one. I've got a set that I really like from RHDJapen, but that one isn't shipped to AU. So need to find someone who can get it for me
    • Here's an idea, answer the questions I asked you as they are trying to work out WHY the LSD will be binding up in a straight line.
    • You haven't driven many modern cars then have you? Most of them have sfa steering feel with their stupid electric bullshit steering systems.
×
×
  • Create New...