I installed cams and cam gears a while ago and didnt start fooling with the settings until now. I have hks 272s and am going for the 0/-3 on the hks cam gear it reads each tick mark - 2degrees at crank, so i adjusted my intake cam gear between the first and second tick on the retard end. A few days ago a 'mechanic' at a tire store told me i did it all wrong and i was supposed to go three ticks. is he right or am i right, i havent adjusted anything since it was running fine the way it was and i wanted to verify first.

 

to adjust the cam gears you would have to get on a dyno to actually see if you gain power or not. get some base runs. start with the exhaust cam gears and slowly adjust it start with retarding it and see if you gain hp. once you have found your highest hp by adjusting your exhaust camgears then its time to adjust the intake cam gears.

 

Each tick on the gears = 1 cam degree, which = 2 crank degrees, so you are correct about that.

However, when we say something like "-3", we are speaking in cam degrees, not crank degrees. So, "-3" = 3 ticks of retard on the cam sprocket, which = -6 crank degrees.