cam questions from a b16 newbie

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seanjuan

Senior Member
I have about 500 mi on my sir2 b16 now and I'm thinking that cams might be my next upgrade for the engine.

in the next few weeks it will be getting a CAI and new custom exhaust, will be retaining stock header though. The suspension is aslo getting a makeover with Tokico ill's and eibach prokits.

this is currently a daily car with future track, autoX, and maybe a little drag in the plans. Eventually (a year or two) I want to run a turbo set up and at that point will probably build up the engine so it can handle 10lbs or so with no prob.

for the time being I'm thinking cams with a remote possibility of going on the bottle. I would prefer a cam that has decent low/mid gains and breaths well all through the vtec range. I'm running a JDM P30 ecu.

what do you guys think about buying used cams? How badly can cams get F'd up? I'm thinking maybe crower or skunk2 for aftermarket possibilities because they have good names and aren't too expensive. are ctr or itr cams going to give a significant improvement by themselves?

it is also recomended to replace the valvetrain with some of the cams, I will probably retain the stock revlimit so is a valvetrain upgrade really required? are there going to be further performance gains with a valvetrain upgrade? sorry if i'm being a dumbass

next is camgears... will I get more horsepower if they are red or blue? :unsure:
sorry, had to ask that

seriously though, unless going to an adjustable gear what is the diff between aftermarket gears and stock gears?

if I put in cams should my next trip be to a dyno to get the car tuned? or is that not going to be very necessary?

I know I asked some stuff that has been answered somewhere else I'm sure and I know I forgot something as well.
any advice you guys might have, or experience with cams you might have I'd love you hear it and learn from it.

thanks
Sean

ps if I get new cams with colored cam gears can I still use the stock wire cover or do I need to get one that is the same color? also, could I pant the cams to match the cam gears? :slap: sorry for being so wordy :blah:
 
in Milan's cam post he talks about "bumpy" idle

is there anyway to quantify how "bumpy" the idle will become?
is there anyway a cam that doesn't retain stock idle characteristics can be tamed down (I heard once that ugrading the ignition can make a car idle smoother, like using a MSD unit or something)

I hope I'm not makin to big of an ass of myself
 
Crower Titanium retainers & Honda keepers(12k miles) $100
Crower Dual valvesprings (12k miles) $200
Crower 63402 camshafts (12k miles) $400


does that sound like a good setup?
would I need to purchase the retainers or could I just get by with the springs

these are the "bumpy" idle version of the 402's I think, I'm I going to lose and fillings? (assuming I had fillings)


ok, I won't post anymore until I get a reply now, plus I will be holding my breath until I get a reply :squint:
 
with the word bumpy it means that your ride will feel a little bumpy at idle, now if you fine tune it out you can virtually eliminate all the bumpy-ness. My buddy has spec C's and his car idles like oem, BUT it took 12 HOURS on the dyno to tune them and attain that idle. Yes, I posted 12 HOURS....
 
so if I picked up those crower 402's, how much dyno time am I looking at to smooth out the idle?

would an MSD (or similar) ignition help?
what is your opinion on buying cams with 12k on them?

I really appreciate the help

IYO
if you were in my shoes and looking for cams, what do you think you'd go with?
I'm willing to wait it out to find used ones to save some cash, not in a huge hurry to do this.
 
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