Here's a quick update - the whole project so far has been smooth, with only two small problems.

The first problem was that I needed an air impact wrench to loosen the cam gear bolts and cam angle sensor bolt. They are all screwed into the camshafts and wouldn't budge on my car. Once I had the right tools it was fast and easy.

The second problem is that the home made valve spring compressor (based on the common DSM site version) wouldn't fit. There were issues with the 7/8" socket size, bar & clamp to head clearence and a good chance of damaging the caps the rocker arms ride on. I've ordered a proper overhead valve spring compressor and should have it tomorrow evening.

 

erioshi-
nice to hear that you're going to have things up and running soon. After reading your previous post, i can see that we are both on similar paths with our cars, yours being a few months ahead of mine. the itch has been there the last two weeks to plunk down some cash on a set of cams, but i decided to wait to hear what you had to say about the Piper setup... look forward to hearing a review of your cams after install.

so what exactly are you installing this round?

 

This round I'm adding the cams, adjustable cam gears and walbro fuel pump. I've also installed a K & N Typhoon intake and some shifter bushings.

 

The new springs and retainers are in! The valve spring compressor I purchased worked perfectly, and with a friend compressing the springs I was able to manipulate the keepers reasonably easily. I used compressed air to keep the valves pinned closed while I pulled the old parts out and installed the new stuff.

I should be able to finish everything up tonight and get a test drive in; I'll keep you posted.

 

can't wait for results, especially after you get them tuned

 

It Lives!

I've finally got everything back together and am just now starting to load my new tuning maps and see how things look. Mechanically everything seems to have gone great; no unusual noises, smells, sounds, etc. I've had the car running off and on for about an hour now and things seem to check out nicely.

The cams have a pretty decent lope at -3/-3 so I'll see ifI can dial some of that out by tweaking the cam gears. While I like the lope, it's pretty much a dead give-away that the car has seen engine work.

I'm planning ot get some miles on the car tonight so I'll post my first impressions tomorrow. If I'm lucky and can find someone to weld in a wideband O2 bung tomorrow, I 'll hook up a widenand and start some mild tuning.

 

keep us posted

 

About 100 easy miles so far and the change to midrange driving is significant. I've been trying to keep under .5 bar boost and 4500 RPMs, but even in that area the car feels noticeably stronger. I can't wait to really push it.

Later today I will be taking a long (5 to 6 hours round trip) road-trip to "wear in" the cams. After that and a quick oil change I should be able to try some harder driving.

 

i do piper cams mate

send me a mail at saladdin_ayubi@hotmail.com

i will send u the profiles list

 

what are you looking at for run-in mileage erioshi? what if any management do you have- reflash, stand alone, piggyback?

moses evo-
what do you have to say about management? will piper cams still be effective using the factory ECU, or will i have a tough idle? TIA

 

^. stock ecu+piper cams=idle problems. Reflash, Stand-alone, emanage would probably work. SAFC is no good.

 

Eroishi: Where did you purchase the tool and what is the part number for the valve spring compressor? If it's cheap i'll buy it and do it myself, if not, i might as well pay someone.

 

serge u def need a mappable ecu mate to map it to suit and time it

i dont recommend it without it

aems or autronics are good for evo's and also powerfc

 

you need to break in cams? 0_o

 

Back from a rough weekend - First the fun stuff!

The cams definitly made a difference, but I didn't have a chance to do any serious testing. According to my "butt dyno" the cams were a solid upgrade. As for breaking them in, I mostly wanted some easy miles on the car to heat cycle them a few times and make sure that I had everything put pack together and torqued correctly.

For engine management I have an XEDE from Vishnu (piggyback), and I was able to start working with my new maps some. I only risked one full throttle/full load test in 2nd gear with the engine untuned. The car wanted to make big power, but my base maps wouldn't let it deliver - the ECU was pulling both timing and boost. I expected this, and definitely needed to get a wideband hooked up and do some tuning!

Now the bad news:

My car was hit on Saturday, and there is a chance it might be totaled. I was driving to a shop to have a fitting mounted for a wideband O2, to be able do some more tuning. This means that I can't provide hard data on the changes the cams actually made or do any new tuning, at least for a while. I'm thankful everyone is OK, and the car can be fixed or replaced.