Camshafts

[triumphtr4]

Being a newbie looking through old posts about getting more power from the zd30 one thing I have noticed is that cams are never mentioned. Is anyone playing with cam timing and profiles?

 

[tweak'e]

i doubt anyone has.
a somewhat expensive option and most likely very little gain.
the worse thing is that they have inlet and exhaust lobes on each cam, so that limits what timing you can easily do. not sure if anyone makes adjustable cam pulleys that will fit.

 

[Dion]

No-one on here has come anywhere near chasing the extra 3kW camshafts would net. Nobody has even pushed the limits of boost/intercooling/methanol injection which come before camshafts in turbo-diesel performance tuning.

 

[Krankin]

Yep, easier gains in power other ways than cams.

 

[Old.Tony]

I'm with the other guys here.

I'm not sure with a direct injection diesel engine you could gain a whole lot by messing with the cams anyway. The only thing you're really doing is changing when she takes a gulp of air and since that's not butterflied (it's a full gulp, every time) I think there's far more to be gained by playing with the crankshaft angle sensor (like the Unichip does), the turbocharger vanes (like the ChipIt chip does) and the fuel rail pressure (like any chip does).

Don't get me wrong, you might make small advances for the effort, but if you're talking about value for money, the camshaft is going to be right at the end of the line, I would think.