what cams do I have?

[ohecht]

Is there a way to tell the type of cams that are in an engine?

I imagine you could precisely measure lift, duration, etc. with the proper tools, but is there a simpler way if you have the specs?

Thanks,

Olivier

[jluetjen]

One way to "ball park" it a little is to figure out when the engine feels like it is "coming on cam".

So you start out at 1500 RPM in 2nd gear and smoothly give it full throttle. When does it start to run cleanly? When does it really start to PULL with a capital "P" (peak torque engine speed)?

My experience is that for the stock Porsche cams, the answers would be about as follows:

Cam.....Pulls cleanly.....PULLS!
T...........1500...............4200 RPM
E...........2000...............4500
S...........2500...............5200
SC.........????................4200

Now of course this will all depend on the level of tune of the engine, the configuration of the motor (if it has been rebuilt) and such, but it should put you in the ball park.

Basically, if you can potter away at 1000 RPM cleanly -- you don't have "S" cams!

[ohecht]

Thanks, John, I had not thought of that.

I was speaking to someone today looking at SC engines for PCA stock class racing, and we were unsure how you could tell, or how they could tell at the inspection, etc. for that matter.

I will try to notice that point in the curve. If my SC's cams were upgraded, what were the options people most often used and their associated RPM points as you describe above. I know 964 cams are popular in 3.0s, but I don't know if others were also done.

Olivier


Olivier