This is mainly aimed at the N/A people on here as turbo owners would be a different kettle of fish when choosing cams.

Want to know what sort of cams people run, their characteristics and their durations. I was speaking to a piper rep a few times in order to try and establish what I am looking for and he suggested to go for their BP270 cams. These are a mild duration cam set running 260 deg and 248 deg respectively inlet and exhaust which is pretty mild and sort of on the right lines of what I want since the really lairy stuff runs roughly 290-300+. Kent I am not really too keen on since their base cam seems to be lairier and also has a narrower powerband and starts working later

Ultimately I am wanting a cam set that keeps the low down torque relatively as it was before since I know it tends to disappear with really funky cams but want all my gain to be in the midrange i.e. 3.5-4k really start pulling strong all the way to 6-7k. I dont even know if thats achievable but there are bound to be more knowledgable people on here than I am.

In addition is it possible to obtain the required characteristics from your cams via verniers i.e. can you adjust the cams to how YOU want them rather than for optimum bhp which is going to be really high up the rev range which is basically useless on the road. Just looking for a decent set of fast road cams really and have been inclined by the BP270s

Engine in question is a 1.8 Zetec Blacktop already running K&N, ST170 snorkel to cold air feed and AutoSpecialists heatshield, Piper Zorst, Decat, ST170 Manifold heatwrapped and bluefin.

Have also read fast ford articles on cam timing and how cams work. Very very good read and learnt a lot about valve lift and how it effects engine characteristics and it further backs up my thoughts to go for the 270s. Some specs here:

Powerband : 1800-7000rpm ; Power increase : 12bhp
Inlet duration : 260 deg ; Exhaust duration : 248 deg
Inlet valve lift : .372"/9.45mm ; Exhaust valve lift : .345"/8.76mm
(Valve lifts quoted assume a rocker ratio of 1:1. )
Timing (Inlet open - close) / (Exhaust open - close) : 20-60/54-14
Inlet full lift (ATDC) : 110 deg ; Exhaust full lift (BTDC) : 110 deg
Valve clearances : Inlet = .010"/.25mm ; Exhaust = .012"/.30mm

Any advice much appreciated

 

not sure on the specs (you can look those up) but some of the best black top zetec cams i have ever used on mildy tuned engines have been the crower stage 1's

 

thanks for that chris, crower are highly regarded by most but I reckon I'd have to get them from the US.

 

would a way of keeping the mid-range but loosing out slightly up to be

just to use a more wild inlet cam?

it seemed to work on mine. and definitely does on my mi16.(different thing i know)

 

I use 280 duration cams.

To keep low down torque I've also got throttle bodies.

 

i've never heard of running just the inlet cam aftermarket but I do know that the ST170 only runs its VVT on the inlet cam only. This is getting way out of my depth and knowledge though

YoungDan, if I had the money/resources/will, I would've already added throttle bodies and standalone management already

 

anyone else on any cam advice?