Camshaft retaining plate?

[caduceus]

Why did TVR supply it's RV8 engines without this plate? Does it rob the engine of a few ponies? Does anyone else fit one when they're doing an engine refresh?
Apparently they reduce lateral load on the timing chain slightly, thus prolonging the life of the chain. How much by exactly, I don't know. Negligible?
Discuss...

[phazed]

From what I understand, the pre-serp engines distributor holds the camshaft in place.
It is desirable to fit and probably necessary to the Serpentine engines iirc.

[cinquecento]

My '96 serp 5.0 has a nylon button sitting on the end of the camshaft to stop it moving forward. The button has a small clearance to the front cover.

[tvrgreg]

yes serp rv8 engines need the cam plate fitting to stop cam float and the noise that comes with it. But when fitting new cam you need to machine the plate to gain correct clearance, some plates can lock the cam up, some to sloppy. TVR parts sell different thickness plates to get correct freeplay.

[ChimpOnGas]

For what its worth my late 1996 serpentine 4.0HC didn't have a cam retaining plate fitted from new.

My Kent 435 cam was starting to show signs of wear at just 30,000 miles so I had V8 Developments replace it, Rob Robertson fitted a cam retaining plate as part of the job which seemed like a good idea to me.

No issues since.

[caduceus]

I think I'll be adding one as part of the rebuild. Sounds like a no brainer. I guess it's a large part of the reason why the chain was so slack at only 44k mils.
Seeing as you need one to check the end float of the cam that is in there, which I don't have, I'll just buy one which has the most meat on it. Check it with a dti gauge, then get a shop to machine off what I need. Apparently 2-3mm end float is acceptable.

Thanks for your input chaps.

[Sardonicus]

ChimpOnGas said:

For what its worth my late 1996 serpentine 4.0HC didn't have a cam retaining plate fitted from new.

My Kent 435 cam was starting to show signs of wear at just 30,000 miles so I had V8 Developments replace it, Rob Robertson fitted a cam retaining plate as part of the job which seemed like a good idea to me.

No issues since.

Dave it was probably the same as my intermediate serp 4.0 it dont fit with the early Kent Cams adj vernier and its not just the bolt heads that fowl so was left off for this reason I presume when I built my engine with the later revised KC vernier it cleared fine

[tvrgreg]

caduceus said:

I think I'll be adding one as part of the rebuild. Sounds like a no brainer. I guess it's a large part of the reason why the chain was so slack at only 44k mils.
Seeing as you need one to check the end float of the cam that is in there, which I don't have, I'll just buy one which has the most meat on it. Check it with a dti gauge, then get a shop to machine off what I need. Apparently 2-3mm end float is acceptable.

Thanks for your input chaps.

From memory 2-3mm is not acceptable, think we would machine plate to 10-12 thou free float and used dti gauge to check. And if your going to do this check alignment of camchain gears and chain, we used to machine them for perfect alignment as thats what causes the gear and chain wear.

Edited by tvrgreg on Monday 5th September 23:41

[portzi]

ChimpOnGas said:

For what its worth my late 1996 serpentine 4.0HC didn't have a cam retaining plate fitted from new.

My Kent 435 cam was starting to show signs of wear at just 30,000 miles so I had V8 Developments replace it, Rob Robertson fitted a cam retaining plate as part of the job which seemed like a good idea to me.

No issues since.

Same boat as Dave, 68,000 had a top end rebuild, first one since car left the factory,and Nick at Str8 six notts commented that my car did not have one fitted, so he fitted one as part of the rebuild, touch wood all is well 5 years on

Edited by portzi on Tuesday 6th September 10:57

[Chimp871]

When I installed stealth cam the OE cam (serp) had a cam plate. I just used that, it was a close fit but not measured but seems common sense to do so now (hindsight )

[caduceus]

tvrgreg said:

caduceus said:

I think I'll be adding one as part of the rebuild. Sounds like a no brainer. I guess it's a large part of the reason why the chain was so slack at only 44k mils.
Seeing as you need one to check the end float of the cam that is in there, which I don't have, I'll just buy one which has the most meat on it. Check it with a dti gauge, then get a shop to machine off what I need. Apparently 2-3mm end float is acceptable.

Thanks for your input chaps.

From memory 2-3mm is not acceptable, [/footnote]

Ooops, I think that should have been 2-3 thou

Anyway, ordered one up today along with a new key and core plug. Should hopefully get to time in the cam on Friday. Then get the heads back on by the weekend. Never done pre-loading with shims before though. More research then...