V8tuner.com

[GI]

Hello,

Being that the cam on my Tiv has been found to be up the duff, the chap at Dulford made it easy for me and ran through 4 options ranging from the standard cam to cams costing £500+.

In the end we agreed on a fast road Viper cam that would cost £30 more than the standard one, although he stressed that the standard one was very good anyway.

Having just looked up Viper cams, I found V8tuner.com which seems to give a number of interesting options and seemingly reasonably priced. I think the standard cam would cost about £125 or thereabouts, with the Viper costing I guess about £160.

The Viper will apparently give about 7 to 10hp gain over the standard cam, but I see that some of the reasonably priced cams on V8tuner.com give up to 30hp gain... can anyone tell me how this would affect the torque / drivability of the engine - is too hot a cam rather a step backwards when driving normal roads?

I was interested in the following kits:

www.v8tuner.co.uk/product.php?id=525

www.v8tuner.co.uk/product.php?id=534

Being that the insurance would be paying about £200 towards the standard cam and fitting anyway, do I try to eek more power while the engine is in bits or settle with the Viper?

[V8Smith]

Having just been through this and explored all the options, some of the hot Cams will change drivability at low revs. It is widely recognised though that the Kent Cams suit the Tivs best, Im told, although I know nothing about Viper? When altering the Cam you will almost certainly need the ECU remapped to get the maximum out of it, which if you havent already got one, get the Mark Admas chip whilst your at it?? I went for the Kent 218 as the 404 seemed to really give a lumpy ride at low revs Im told? On the rollers mine is putting out 263/285 (albeit with a few other mods too) so I can recommend the Kent 218.

IMHO

Mike

[chassis 33]

Hi, Just to say I've got the Viper Typhoon cam in the Chimaera racer, it seems a fairly decent cam, not too peaky so it's got decent manners at the bottom end. What I had hoped was that I could run standard valve guides with the cam, but in the end I had to go to shortened valve guides, so went the whole hog and put bulleted bronze guides in at the same time, so I could of gone for a much higher lift cam but hey ho. I'll be putting it on the Surrey Rolling Road in a few weeks so will let you know what results that gives if you can wait for more than anecdotal comments.

Regards
Iain

[GI]

Is it worth getting the lifters and followers upgraded?

>> Edited by GI on Thursday 20th April 13:56

[chassis 33]

It depends on the state of the engine. eg if the rockers look good but the shafts are scorn, then swap both the shafts and rockers for new. This is because debris gets caught in the soft material of the rockers and will wear out the new shafts.

I'm not sure about the debate over uprated rockers, presumably you mean going to the steel rocker kit offered by V8tuner. I'm told that despite being heavier, they put less load on the valvetrain. The only explaination I have for this is that the design is more balanced than the aluminium versions. Plus you dont have to worry about the wear pads falling off...oh and they're cheaper than the aluminium OEM versions.

The standard pushrods will do fine. For most builds you dont need adjustable ones, but make sure the rocker stems are correctly shimmed.

On my engine we went for Rhodes bleed down lifters, I'm not entirely convinced they offer a percievable benefit, but apparently they do so they were fitted.

I didn't have any dealings with V8tuner directly, it was all done via my engine builder, I trust his judgement, so i didn't got too deep into the pro's and cons of various bits. Your best bet is to call up the various people selling kit, canvass your opinion and then decide where to spend your money. You may also want to try John Eales (01455 202909) and V8D (01775 750000).

Regards
Iain

[v8 racing]

I think it really boils down to how you want to drive the car too much cam can really make a car evil to drive at low speeds, too little and you dont get the mid range and top end power you want so a bit of a juggling act really!, cams are based on the flow of the heads and the size of the engine, the bigger the engine the more cam you can run, the better the heads the less cam you run, the bleed down lifters like the rhodes are ok ish!! personaly i would never use them but is just my opinion, yes they do soften big cams but on the downside they sound tappety at low rpm, and for the first few seconds they dont pump back up quickenough to make the cam give its full potential, so if you gun it second for instance you are not going to get the full power untill you are in say fouth! hope this helps a bit

[GI]

Thanks, I'm going to try to talk to the chap at Dulford and see what the wear is like on the rockers etc.

I have a number of other things I might want to put some money towards so hopefully he can help me decide:

Silicone hoses
Brake upgrade
Attend to the bonnet paint chips
Modwise the front lights
Sort my bloody wing mirrors out
Repair the small rip in the driver's seat
Chassis painted and waxoyled