NB1 with adjustable cam gears, any advice

I dynoed my 2000 NB with exhaust and flywheel upgrades the other day as a baseline to figure out exactly what can be gained from the Exhintake mod and got 121.7 avg over 3 runs.  In prep for the cam swap, today i cut my cam cover and installed adjustable cam gears on both cams.  Anybody play with cam timing on a naturally aspirated NB1? Ive read a bunch of different threads on multiple forums and have yet to find someone say "move x to here and y to there for _____ increase in ____ end _____" and was wondering if anyone had advice before i swap cams 

Nobody?

I think a dyno is going to be your best bet.

Try the intake only +4° and -4° and see what the difference is.

Try the exhaust only +4° and -4°

Try intake +4° and exhaust -4°

Try the intake -4° and the exhaust +4°

Then report back.  -You- will be the guy with the real answers to that question, and then there will be money, power, and women!

(I like an advanced cam, with increased overlap)

So, dyno time is sometime soon, just trying to have an idea of what to try when i get there.  Which way is advance and retard? Clockwise or counter? Thanks for sharing, my hope is to bring the power down a bit in the rpm range, figure out real numbers (made 121 at the wheels last weekend) and real benefits if there are any and then toss the Exhintake cam at it and see what that does

I had one on the intake cam on my ZX2SR. The exhaust had the variable gear.

I moved , forget which way, to reduce low end power for ice racing, traction control, worked great.

"Advanced" means "opening/closing sooner."

"Retarded" is "opening/closing later."

Butt dynos are cheap; I have one.  Loud mufflers also give the illusion of power. (grin)

I understand the terms and all, I just hadn't found which way was which, but now I believe counterclockwise movement or the cam gear while the cam is stationary is advance.  Thank you to YouTube

The engine will likely rotate clockwise as viewed from the front, and what you have described is correct.

In reply to SkinnyG :

Thanks!

A number of years ago a big player in the adjustable sprocket business had some for new applications and sent me some. While checking them I found that they were, marked in cam degrees when they should have been marked in crank degrees, and in one of the applications where the intake and exhaust are timed differently, they were (for that application) both the same.

None of the sprockets I tested were marked correctly as far as the zero mark being the same as the factory setting.

I tell my customers that they should always use a degree wheel when setting these things up, otherwise you won't know where you really are. OTOH, if you have a dyno and use that to set them up for the power you're looking for it doesn't really matter if you don't know.

We played with these when I was racing/building 4age's. No real big power gains were found it only let us move the power band around a bit. It has been so long I don't remember the exact details. I think we may have found a little bit of power by playing with the exhaust timing and getting a little better scavenging. In the end it was more trouble than it was worth.
 

I was "thinking" of seeing what if any gains could be had by re indexing the stock cam gears and the variable ones were for testing. We could not run them legally in class and re indexing the stock ones may have been a gray area in the rules at the time. 

I have one of the Toda cam gears that FM sells on my turbo NB1 intake (which has the BP5A Mazdaspeed cam).  Played with it a bit on the dyno, but the zero mark turned out to be the best. One way it lost top end, the other way it lost spool but didn't gain anything.

My advice? Nitrous. All of it.

In reply to Suprf1y :

All the middle of the slot may not be factory setting?  Hmmmm and thanks

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

That is my big dilemma actually.  I want more power but not really all the time due to economy and reliability.  A bottle of giggle juice may make me an on ramp monster without having to pull over and reinstall an intercooler coupler at the next exit.

And the adjustable can gears are for this weekend when I replace my intake cam with a stock exhaust cam

You know you can have power and economy. You just have to install one of those variable throttle pedals, the ones with the positions between idle and WOT :) 

IIRC it's the exhaust cam that makes more of a difference with Miatas. I know it's one far more than the other. And they don't really let you make more power, you just get to move it around a bit. Same with the exhintake swap, it's a subtle change that I think mostly comes out of the adjustable gears.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I have about $100 in the whole thing except for the gaskets and the spark plug holes were weeping anyway.  I have baseline numbers and will dyno with gears only and again after the cam to have real data that is not available or very hard to find.

And my variable input right foot has always been unreliable.  

Search this forum, we had someone post some real data on the swap.

so, if the middle of the adjustment slot is, say 1/2, then i have intake advanced to 3/4 and exhaust advanced to 5/8, moving power lower in the RPM range and possibly a bump in overlap.  Not sure if the car feels better due to changes, cool weather or just because my brain wants it to, but it did feel good last night cruising around with the top down on a clear 60 something degree evening, which is what it's all about anyway.  As tuner buddy says "leave it alone and we will see what the curve looks like on the dyno"

hope to swap the cam Sat

Keith Tanner said:

You know you can have power and economy. You just have to install one of those variable throttle pedals, the ones with the positions between idle and WOT :) 

It's true! My car with the 90whp 1.6L, 5-speed and 4.10 got 25-28mpg. After installation of the 245whp supercharged 1.8L, still got 25mpg on the highway. I haven't checked it since the 6-speed/3.63 swap, since my speedometer is now way off, but I imagine it's likely better/ 

There would be less overlap like that, but I'm sure the advance brought the power curve down a bit.

When is the dyno day??

In reply to SkinnyG :

Its my understanding that if the intake is advanced more than the exhaust, they overlap more than before, is that not true because to exhaust is not technically retarded from stock?  The exhaust MUST be retarded from stock to achieve overlap?

Or do i just have it backwards, retard intake and advance exhaust?

Edit: speaking of retarded,  i said it all backwards, the intake is retarded and exhaust is slightly advanced

In reply to NickD :

I cant imagine what my car would be like with anther 100hp, probably fines and a visit to court