Little help someone?, Mechanical question Options

[Wishful3S-GTE]

My knowledge on mechanics is very limited but I'm not completely in the dark. I was just wondering what the measurements of the cam gears represent. Like 256 for example and why tuners use diff sizes or angles or whatever it represents for each cam.

[SpedToe169]

No problem.

You'll probably never see cam gears stamped with a 256 or anything. You might see something like that on the cam itself. Manufacturers often don't want to divulge the exact numbers for the cams they've developed. It would make it way too easy for the competition to copy them and all their R&D money would be lost. As a result they often just give it a number....kinda like a part number that kinda means something. Sometimes is the max lift, sometimes the duration but its usually not enough information to really tell whats going on.

Cam development is a really complex undertaking. I'm an engineer for a world challenge touring car team and I know of some competing teams that have spent huge bank in this area. Its possible to get an idea what a particular cam grind will do using engine simulation software. This is where most cams are born. Then they're gound, dyno tested, degreed, dynoed, degreed, etc until the desired result is achieved. At this point it depends on how serious the tuner is. It often takes several iterations to get one just right. So to really develop a cam for our cars, you'd have to do that whole process at least 6 times (3 for intake and 3 for exhaust) to really tweak it out. Many companies don't take things near this far but most race teams do. We've got 3 sets of cams that were $5k each. Most of that cost is because of the development, not the actual parts.