The Power Can Come From Your Camshaft
Sometimes it may be needed to upgrade your camshaft. A camshafts job inside the motorcar engine is to control the rate of how much fuel is permited into the engine and the quantity of exhaust gases are released out. The camshaft has lobes on it, which are designed by the manufacturer to compensate for performance, fuel economy and emission control. Increased performance and better fuel economy can be created by replacing the stock camshaft with an aftermarket one.
The lobes on the camshaft can be re-profiled to allow more air and fuel enter the piston chamber by how long or how high they allow the valves to open. Cam profile is the name given to it. These profiles are ordinarily designed on computers these days and by taking a laptop out of its laptop sleeves and plugging it to the car allows that data can be obtained for the designs. Extra exhaust gases can be released by modifying the profile of the camshaft too.
There are various different profiles available for certain engines and if your motorcar engine is a popular choice for rallying or other competitive events, you may find there are several different types of profiles that the car has. Speaking to a few of the tuning companies that specialize in your vehicle can find the information needed to make the right choice. Fitting a full rally spec camshaft will be a mistake if you merely intend to use your car for road purposes. The profile will solely allow the car to produce power at really top end revs but allow extremely low drivability at the low end of the rev range. For various uses the camshafts are normally marked up as for (fast road, rally or race use). The ratings might provide you some sort of idea as to which one will be right for your application.
The fast road use cams typically possess just a longer opening duration than a standard cam. Many of the race and rally cams have a higher lift as well. Other modifications could then have to be made. The height of the springs that allow the valves to move up and down might have to be changed.
Fitting high lift cams might cause what is known as spring binding which means in certain cases a shorter spring may needed to be fitted as well. This could be some added expense. New valve springs too could need to be added to the shopping list as shorter ones will halt the valves striking the pistons if the camshaft is a high lift one. You will have to remember that other mods may be required such as re-jetting the fueling system or re-mapping any ECU, a job for the taking the laptop out of the 17 inch laptop case again. Also the exhaust system may have to be modified to help remove the waste exhaust gasses. Most decent tuning companies should be able to offer you the correct advice as to what cam is best for your application.