I am building an engine for a FRST i am building, i have got TDC, and got to dial my newman cam in, but at the moment with the gauge on the inlet valve its open for quite a few degrees, i am a little lost now as the inlet valve is open for quite a few degrees, when do i set it up?

 

set it up via timing wheel on the crank pulley,

if you dont have this, stop before you break it matey,

Email Newman and they will send you the specs.
dont be embaressed about doing this, weve all been there

 

i have got the disc on the crank, and got the specs, just stuck on when to set up the camshaft

 

you ll need a dti gauge to get true tdc and full lift on number one inlet valve,
well thast how i use to do it on pinto engines

 

ive got all that, when i put the dti gauge on the valve, i need to know when to set the cam up, as the valve is open for a few degrees, is it at the start of fully open or another place????

 

you need to set the dwell (middle point of no movement, if that makes sense, )
both for TDC, you zero the crank timing gauge you have setup,

then when valve is at full lift, this is your other set point, when both are matched, lock (and mark!!) the vernier pulley in place.

drive the car, smile, take pictures and tell your friends how much of a god you are! Man mission accomplished, with pictures to prove!!

 

im far from an expert but i always set it so the valve was just about to start closing ,
now this was only on stock car engines but seemed to go ok
im sure someone here will know better then me but

 

no, your right, this would normally equate to full lift being *specific* degrees past top dad centre

again taking from the camshaft "dwell"

but you need to know at what degrees to set the camshaft up to.......... i.e exhaust cam no.1/4 TDC and full exhaust cam lift and point dwell at say 110degrees,

that`d be bang on, you see what im trying to put accross?

i hope so

 

I normally get my paperwork out to refer to when I do this but off the top of my head this is what your looking to do.

There is a formula you use (look it up on the net) but its something like add the opening point to the closing point of the cam together then add 180degrees divided by 2 that will give you the full lift at what point on the crank pully. Then you turn the crank to that figure and then turn the cam to set the full lift point.

You have to take a "best of" figure on a single cam engine as you can't change the overlap like you can on a twin cam.

If I'm wrong someone will be along shortly to correct me

 

i need to do mine soon and that dose not make sence to me

 

iseally you'd set the cams to have "x" amount of lift on overlap with piston at tdc, the alternative is full lift on valves at "x" degrees after tdc etc.
finding the exact mid point of lift is a pain as you have to get a measurement either side of full lift then find the true centre and time up to this not a guessed centre as this could be 10 degrees out.