Guest_001 Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Hi, Wondering if anyone here has ever fitted a performance camshaft to their 300tdi? I may rebuild the engine next year and like any old engine, I would expect the cam lobes to be a bit worn down. I have seen the standard ERR3547 camshaft for sale but never a performance version, i.e. more torque. Is there one out there, anyone fitted one, and did it make any difference? cheers LRmud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I would guess that the people to speak to would be Turner Engineering. Porting the head at the same time would be a good idea too. Les Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest_001 Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Yes, Turners appear to be THE people to go to, but no mention on their website of anything other than the standard camshaft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cackshifter Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I understand the camshafts are normally reusable in a rebuild (from Wards). Plus with a turbo, a cam change tends to be a last resort. You might be better looking at a VNT turbo. If anyone does a cam it would probably be Pipers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Member Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I think the stock cam gives as much lift as the valve springs and piston clearance can handle. I doubt there is ever any cam wear. These are roller cams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vulcan bomber Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 A performance cam would move the torque up the rev range making it a bit crappy to drive anywhere other than the motorway imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydie Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Camshafts: The design of these has three criteria, the camshaft dwell angles, lobe angles of curve and the amount of lift of the lobes. Dwell angle is the point in the rotation of the camshaft when the camshaft lobes begin to open the valves. Lobe curves. The camshaft lobes have a specific function, to open the valve, the duration that the valve is open and to allow the valve to close. Lift: This the amount of lift given to the valve is fairly self explanatory. In theory you can alter the camshaft dwell angles so that the inlet valves begin to open sooner than the standard camshaft and be given greater lift with the curve of the camshaft lobes allowing the inlet valves to begin closing at the correct dwell point so that the pistons do not impact on the valves as they come to TDC. The exhaust lobes could be machined to allow a greater period of opening to allow improved scavenging of the exhaust gasses. Given that you would need to supply to the camshaft machinist your torque requirements I would doubt if the end result would be to your liking, if the inlet valves open sooner, idle becomes "lumpy" and the degree of lift - getting a greater amount of air/fuel into the cylinders and longer duration for the exhaust gasses to escape becomes equally more problematical as with the design and use of a turbo you ideally want the exhaust span to be short and sharp to give a high velocity "blast" of exhaust gas to cause the turbine to spin, a long exhaust span will not give you this desired effect. In addition to this a free flowing exhaust manifold is unable to cause the harmonic shocks that again, cause the turbine to spin. Conclusion. Your easiest resort is to replace your standard turbo with a Variable Inlet Turbo, this will give you the increased low down power that you are looking for in conjunction with greater top end pressure without losing the existing idle speeds, be careful of this latter pressure however as you would not be advised to run the engine at much greater than 18psi turbo pressure, serious engine failure could result and in any case I would recommend that you do a bottom end overhaul just to satisfy yourself that the existing engine is able to cope with your increased power modifications. In conjunction to this you can match the ports to the inlet and exhaust manifolds (port & polish) to give a better gas flow through both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest_001 Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 In answer to my questions, I guess that'll be a "no" then. Many thanks LRmud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbekko Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 If you replace a camshaft, ideally you want to replace the followers, which on a 300TDi appear to be made of solid gold looking at the price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 I've stripped down quite a few high mileage 300tdi engines, cams always look fine, they don't seem to suffer from bore wear either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 The 300TDi engine that I rebuilt had been boiled and fried (seized pistons and warped/cracked head) . It had also been sat outside with just a bit of old carpet over it for a few months. The cam and crank were probably the only parts that were still fine. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash.Witty Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I know the perfect chap you need to speak to... Leon Atenborough works part time for Dave Gardner racing engines up near Lancaster, they build full blown race engines and Leon has a very high interest in performance diesels, especially tractor pulling and truck racing engines. in the past he has modified his own 200tdi, with a hx35w turbo off a 5.9L cummins, larger distributor head on the injection pump etc. Running High levels of boost, at the time it would do a quarter mile a second quicker than the u.k's fastest td5. They can do anything you can imagine to do with performance tuning, the camshafts would be outsourced only as they haven't got a cam grinding machine themselves but they have a serious amount of kit in house. Although they build race engines the prices are competively priced as I've been there this week to enquire about some block machining for my Cummins Land Rover engine.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discomikey Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 shouldn't have posted that ash... Off to the shed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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