7A cams, any known probs?

[audiman]

Well over yesterday and today, I have got round to fitting my 7A cams. I also replaced the water pump and timing belt, along with a new cam chain. I decompressed all the tappets and fitted them in with no probs, ensuring the dist. was timed up. Fired it up and after about 10 minutes or so the tappets shut up and i could hear the engine. Smooth and quiet!! Wahey. No lumpyness or black smoke issues either. As they say down here, Proper Job.

[martinjs]

how much better does it run tom? i fitted my exhaust one at same time as turbo upgrade so couldnt tell what difference the cam alone made.
think i'll look around for an inlet cam too then.
found a 20v 90 in breakers (engine complete), wouldnt split engine
got another good deal for a tenner though..7a FPR and coil:nana:


the barley pickers....lol....nutters

[APNess]

Will see what mine runs like with RS2 map in Tom, but I think the S2 cam will be going back in - the 7a seemed like a good idea at the time but with the other problems I've had maybe I should just revert as much as poss to standard and get the thing back running right first.

How long to change cam? Got any top tips?

Cheers, Paul

[audiman]

Shouldnt bother Paul. It means cam belt disconnected and coils out, inlet tract out, rocker cover off, cams out. Blah, blah,blah.

It has made no noticable difference to the way it runs. It runs just like a std cammed engine.

[Mark Halligan]

Paul,

are you using both 7A inlet and exhaust cams?

Mark.

[APNess]

Just the exhaust cam Mark. You think I should go with inlet too?

Paul

[Mark Halligan]

Paul,

I'll let you know as I'll be using both in my new engine, I dont want to tread on dodgy ground....but is the cam timed up OK?

Mark.

[audiman]

When will this Mark H monster lump be ready then?? Did you want that 7a pulley btw?

[Mark Halligan]

Tom,

waiting on the JE pistons, I still think that there is a difference in the woodruff key position on some of the pulleys and I might use an adjustable pulley fitted with a hall sensor trigger 'ring' from a ABY,ADU pulley, with the timing referenced to a 7A pulley, I'll let you know soon.

Mark.

[audiman]

Ok mate, no worries.

I have used both cams on my car, but there is not noticable change in the way that the car goes. I meant to measure the lift on the S2 cams, against that of the 7A cams. Forgot, and im not taking it apart again to find out!

Is there any info on the different cams? S2 vs RS2 vs 7A?? Such as duration/lift etc

[Mark Halligan]

Is there any info on the different cams? S2 vs RS2 vs 7A?? Such as duration/lift etc

Tom,

over on Kruemmer, in files section, loads of data.

Cheers,

Mark.

[APNess]

Mark - yeah, timing seems alright. When I picked the car up it was banging and popping and barely running. As far as I can tell the hydraulic tappets hadn't been drained, but didn't know at the time no.1 plug socket was full of oil, so it wouldn't have helped running on 4 cylinders.

ECU comes back today with a bit of luck, so hopefully that'll improve things, but before anything else gets done, gonna change all the rocker cover gaskets (again) and plug sleeves, and check compression on each cylinder.

Does the 7a ex cam need timing up as normal (i.e. with the dot at 9 o clock to the inlets' 3 as you look at it from the drivers seat side of car) or slightly advanced/retarded? The idle was around 800 give or take a hundred each way on standard s2 injectors, whereas it used to be rock solid, and after what Tom said (smooth idle etc), something seems to be a bit out.

Cheers, Paul

[Mark Halligan]

Paul,

I not sure about the cam timing yet, the 7A and 3B share the same cam pulley P# but the ABY and ADU are different. The obvious reason for this is the hall trigger on the later engines, if that was all then you would expect the ABY and ADU engines to use the same pulleys, but they dont. This makes me think that the woodruff key position may be in a different location on each of them, I wont know for sure until I have a 7A/3B and an ABY or ADU pulley in my hands in order to compare them, I'll do this soon, especially as I will be using both cams and I want to be sure the timing is correct.
Sorry to give you more to worry about, it might be nothing, but its best to make sure.

Cheers,

Mark.

[APNess]

I can't be positive now that the cams have been timed right. Unfortunately, I'm so screwed with work this week I can't check for sure till this coming Sunday (when I get a day off. Woot.) I have a feeling the cams, with everything else lined up, point at 2-10 as you look from inside the car, instead of 3-9 and level with the cam top. Need to confirm, but my mate who was helping me sort stuff out also thinks they were at 2-10....

Paul

[audiman]

Oi, this is what they should look like. Excuse the nail varnish