camshaft questions

[okiejohn]

can you put an aggresive cam in a 69 high compression motor and still have piston clearance?

[Betta Carotene]

Depends on the camshaft itself and if you are going to retain the stock valve springs. I used one of the biggest cams possible with stock valvetrain. i have had no piston interference even on my 2.0L. BTW the cam is 290H from Schneider Racing cams (.435 lift, 230@.050 110 lobe sep) Jared and I have used this cam with great results. HTH

[tekenaar]

Depends on the camshaft itself and if you are going to retain the stock valve springs. I used one of the biggest cams possible with stock valvetrain. i have had no piston interference even on my 2.0L. BTW the cam is 290H from Schneider Racing cams (.435 lift, 230@.050 110 lobe sep) Jared and I have used this cam with great results. HTH

Specs look good, I'll try that on one of my regrinds soon . . .

[Betta Carotene]

Specs look good, I'll try that on one of my regrinds soon . . .

The cam card is in my gallery if you care to look.

[Paul]

John,

With stock valves, coil spring bind is the limiting factor as far as Max cam lift is concerned, not piston to valve clearance. Max valve lift is reported to be around .430 to .435". Duration of valve opening is another matter. Lobe seperation is yet another...

There are several cams that can be used with stock springs. The Isky OR-66 is one: .430 lift; 228 @ .050 and 110 seperation. It is listed as available in solid or hyd grind. There is the one mentioned above. There is also several availabe from CAm Techniques. I have them listed in a file in the Opel Tech Center. Go to the home page of this site, click on the link and then go to general, and download the pdf file under "engine specs and modification spec".

The real determination of which cam you can use is determined by weather or not you are willing to change the springs. If you stick with stock springs, then you are limited by lift. There are several grinds available that work great with stock springs.

Lobe seperation or Seperation Angle changes the amount of valve overlap. The more overlap the rougher the cam is and the power band narrows.

110 is very close to the stock cam and works great for the street. 108 is a pretty good step towards a more racey cam. 104 to 106 is hard core racing...

hth