[DanRHeller]

For American cars there is a HUGE cam aftermarket and I never see that for imports, why is that? It should have just as much of an increasae for your cars as it is for mine, right?

[evilSTi7]

there is a big market for cams in imports. Evo owners upgrade their cams all the time, because it's easy. you don't see it nearly as much on the sti because it's a PITA to get to the cams.

[polyol]

Its popular with Hondas and EVO owners. 272 cams are VERY popular with EVO's. The problem with the STi is the install is difficult and it requires 4 cams....so its probably twice the expense. Im really not the expert on cams with the STi but most people that build up an engine usually do cams.

***EDIT*** evil pretty much beat me to it...

[Tomerville]

You never see that for imports? That's strange because there is a pretty big market for import cams as well. On inline engines it's a pretty simple installation. There are plenty of DUYs on EvoM and Honda sites showing how to do it, and it's even a job pretty novice weekend mechanics can do.

On Subarus because of the boxer design they are not nearly as common because unlike inlines, the engine must be dropped which is a 4+ hour job. In addition, unlike inlines, there are 4 cams, rather than just two which makes the job a little harder and takes a little longer.

Never the less, on most engine builds people choose to upgrade their cams. If you drop your engine, you might as well do as much as possible, but for our cars, there are cheaper easier mods.

Plus, as you know, cams basically shift yoru hp/tq curve right, which doesn't imporve daily driveability -- which is a feature lots of owners might want to keep since our subies have nice mid-range power.

just my .02.

[Tortfeasor STi]

Cams are big in both import and domestic scenes. Its just that as people have pointed out, they are popular on engines that are not such a royal PITA to do the swap on. When people end up doing these swaps is after mulching their stock engine. Usually they buy a crate engine from a manufacturer that will come with new cams already in the block. Also, on a turbo car, the easiest and largest gains are in swapping the turbo, which is a much easier deal. When you are dealing with the cost of a suby cam swap, you will quickly discover that a proper turbo swap will net you way more HP per $ spent then a cam swap. So do a big turbo swap and wait till your engine gives up the ghost before doing a cam swap.

[520]

I have the DPR stage II cams on my car and it shifted the peak power about 600rpms to the right compared to other similar setups. The only reason i did them was because i was having a engine built and it would be easy.

+1 to everything everyone else sadi.

[Black-STi]

I just had 284/274 Cosworth cams installed on my car.

Heads were already ported and built motor was already going in so it wasnt much more in terms of labor to install the cams. If the motor wasnt out already, it would have been very expensive to have them put in.

The cams themselves are not exactly cheap either, especially if you want to have AVCS cams....

[520]

wo</>rd

[Crawford/I-Speed]

Originally Posted by DanRHeller

For American cars there is a HUGE cam aftermarket and I never see that for imports, why is that? It should have just as much of an increasae for your cars as it is for mine, right?

The main reason is you are comparing a non turbo motor to our turbo motors. On an N/A motor, the head work and cams are how you get more air into the motor. By turning up the boost we can create more power than a cam change and head work combined.

As an example; a stock STI has 300hp, add a bigger turbo and turn up the boost and it will make 500hp with all the stock engine components. This is like a 65% increase in power from cramming more air into the same motor.

Now take your 300hp Subaru and toss in a set of cams,,, If you are lucky you will see a 15% increase in power with a "loss" of torque.

Another reason is that our Subaru heads and cams are quite good from the factory

[WRX4ME LE 482]

I dont understand why anybody would need new cams since we have AVCS. Doesnt the computer adjust the cams on the fly depending on the speed the engine is running at which has the effect of optimum lobe placement all the time? American cars from what I can tell have been slow at getting any type of AVCS/VTEC/MVEC/whatever and that's why they benefit soo much from new cams. Also, ppl like to soup up old muscle cars without ECUs so that's their only choice.

Somebody explain plz where im wrong.

[Crawford/I-Speed]

Originally Posted by WRX4ME LE 482

I dont understand why anybody would need new cams since we have AVCS. Doesnt the computer adjust the cams on the fly depending on the speed the engine is running at which has the effect of optimum lobe placement all the time? American cars from what I can tell have been slow at getting any type of AVCS/VTEC/MVEC/whatever and that's why they benefit soo much from new cams. Also, ppl like to soup up old muscle cars without ECUs so that's their only choice.

Somebody explain plz where im wrong.

You are correct; the concept behind AVCS is to give you the advantage of two different cam grinds in the same motor. The OEM cams work great at high revs while the AVCS makes the same cam work great at low revs as well.

[WRX4ME LE 482]

^If thats the case, why would we ever need aftermarket cams? Why not just adjust your AVCS if you want to move your graph to the right or whatever?

[Crawford/I-Speed]

If you are drag racing and running your motor above 7000rpm you will see a benefit from changing your cams. You will see a positive effect at the higher revs and a negative effect in the other areas of the power band.

For what it's worth, we run the OEM cams in all our race winning Time Attack cars, and we adjust our AVCS to do exactly as you mentioned

.

[Black-STi]

stock cams have a steep drop off in power after 5100rpm I believe...

[SNE2040]

It's not cost efficient to do anything besides basic bolt ons on an STi because of the motor design. If you want a hell of a lot more power, buy an Evo or a Supra.