Fitting A High Lift Cam

[Tandoh 17]

Hi ive recently bought a piper cam from johnnyboy.

I bought it to go on my Rallye, but im not sure whether or not to fit it myself. I was thinking about fitting it and taking it down the road to the garage to have it set up.

 

I havent really done much engine mechanics other than helping fitting a carb and head to the Rallye and servicing.

 

Does anyone have any advice or tips??

 

Thanks everyone =]

 

Luke

[swordfish210 20]

Well the head will need to come off so you may as well have it skimmed while you're at it, then change the gasket and head bolts. Do you have the rockers that he was using with the cam? You will either need these or a new set and run them in to each other, not doing this may result in premature cam wear.

 

As for setting it up, just having it on the standard pulley will make a noticable difference but to get the best out of it you will need a vernier pulley and then have the car set up on a rolling road. What spec is the cam if you don't mind me asking?

[Tandoh 17]

The cam is a piper 285. There is no rockers that came with the cam. The head on the Rallye was skimmed about a year ago, and its done about 4-5 thousand miles since then. The garage that we take our cars to gave me a quote of £100-150 depending on if the head needed to be skimmed., so im thinking thats not bad for what needs to be done.

 

Also wondering if anyone know where abouts ther is a rolling road in the south west, salisbury/yeovil region.

 

Cheers

 

Luke

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Well the head will need to come off so you may as well have it skimmed while you're at it, then change the gasket and head bolts. Do you have the rockers that he was using with the cam? You will either need these or a new set and run them in to each other, not doing this may result in premature cam wear.

 

As for setting it up, just having it on the standard pulley will make a noticable difference but to get the best out of it you will need a vernier pulley and then have the car set up on a rolling road. What spec is the cam if you don't mind me asking?

 

You don't need to replace head bolts in a TU engine. Also if the head isn't blown or warped and is straight whats the points in spending £50!? Just put a stragith edge on it to test.

 

Ali

[drmo 5]

You don't need to replace head bolts in a TU engine. Also if the head isn't blown or warped and is straight whats the points in spending £50!? Just put a stragith edge on it to test.

 

Ali

Thats not entirely true. It is prefered that you change them, but you can also measure them for overstrech. First time i didn't change the headbolts one of them snaped. Bad luck? Probably but, I never used used bolts ever again.

 

Head is probably straight, so I would just buy a set of new headbolts and a headgasket, wich is cca. 36gbp...which is bargain.

[swordfish210 20]

I allways replace the headbolts as a matter of course, you can reuse them but they tend to strech very close to their maximum tolerance after one use. I had my head skimmed after it had only done 6,000 miles and it needed 4thou taken off of it It's got more to do with the state of the block rather than the mileage it's done.

[RossD 43]

Yep, I've jut taken the head off my 205 and measured the bolts - They are about 1mm over the maximum length and they've had the single use. You definatly need to replace the bolts!

[backroadpug 12]

you dont need to take the head of to fit a cam. lock the engine remove belt and rocker cover and remove caps then put cam pulley on new cam and re fit then re fit every thing else no longer than a 45 minute job. cheaper than removing the head done it to all my pugs and after re torquing have never had any issues.

[rescue dude 0]

Don't you need double valve springs with a 285?

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Do you need stiffer valve springs with a 285 cam? I may be fitting one shortly.

[swordfish210 20]

It would be a good idea, Piper do some good 240lb ones. Carefully measure the fitted length though as i found with mine the std length is about 40mm and they need to be down to 38.5mm.

[peakrevs 0]

The cam is a piper 285. There is no rockers that came with the cam. The head on the Rallye was skimmed about a year ago, and its done about 4-5 thousand miles since then. The garage that we take our cars to gave me a quote of £100-150 depending on if the head needed to be skimmed., so im thinking thats not bad for what needs to be done.

 

Also wondering if anyone know where abouts ther is a rolling road in the south west, salisbury/yeovil region.

 

Cheers

 

Luke

 

Possibly too far west but I use Mark at SRD Launceston and he is absolutely excellent both as a meticulous engine builder and the care he takes in setting an engine up. He is also a pedaller of some note so relates well to those of us who race. His link is:http://www.srdlaunceston.co.uk/

[TaffyTim 6]

not sure if they are closest for you but longman in christchurch is the closest for me

 

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=longman&am...=16&iwloc=A

[RossD 43]

Did SRD get an illiterate chineseman to write their website?! Click on the engine tuning link and read the text!

[RossD 43]

you dont need to take the head of to fit a cam. lock the engine remove belt and rocker cover and remove caps then put cam pulley on new cam and re fit then re fit every thing else no longer than a 45 minute job. cheaper than removing the head done it to all my pugs and after re torquing have never had any issues.

 

Maybe on an XU but not a TU engine. Head needs to come off to replace the cam.

[Tandoh 17]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

 

Ive decided to go in a slightly different direction with the Rallye. Went down to my garage were we take the Rallye most of the time and got a few ideas off the guy who owns it.

The new plan is to build a new engine using a 1.6 TU bottom end and a 1.4 head which we currently have. We have having the head ported and polished, uprated valve springs and further head work done. He is then going to build up the engine and swap the whole thing over one weekend. The guy is quite good at building engines as he used to work at k-tek and all he did was rebuild engines so i have confidence in his work =]

After running i the engine we are going to get it on a rolling road and get the carbs balanced (twin 40's currently on teh car) and the car properly set up.

 

Just wondering if anyone else as any ideas for a bit more power?

 

Cheers

[dcc 855]

a 16v conversion is more than likely in your price range by the sounds of it. Look at Jackman's thread to see how mint a 16v tu looks in a 205 rallye, yellow too!

[stu_woac 1]

yes you should run with siffer valve springs or your get mad valve bonce and the cam will not be worth 2 pence the tu as standard suffers badly from valve , you can take the cam out with or re-moving the head on a tu but it is more than a 45min job as you need to unbolt the engine mounts then jack and then tilt the engine but as your taking the head bolts out to release the cam you can knock the head off quite easy anyways, to swap the cam plus head gasket if springs are not required (but they are) its a 25min job done it many times due to playing around with head gaskets and cams, on the ali block of the tu as in the xs the bolts should be replaced every time they are used or the iron block of a rallye as such can be used again under 20,000 miles but in my head its worth 16 pound every time to replace the bolts Ive replaced them after only running in the engine (500 miles) when I wanted to replace the thick gasket to a thiner one once it was ran in

 

hope some of this helps

 

take the advice or not up to you

 

 

p.s. the quickest way to get a 205 xs or rallye to be quicker is buy a lsd worth every penny and feel that was the best mod on mine

Edited January 4, 2010 by stu_woac

[RossD 43]

Regardless of the block being aluminium or iron, the bolts are the same. This means at the very minimum you should measure the length if you want to re-use them to see if they are within spec. Trouble is, even after a single use (Not even starting the engine between tightening them and removing them - Don't ask! ) all the ones I've used are then over length.

[stu_woac 1]

yes the bolts are the same its how the blocks expand and stretch them that is why u can never use the ally block bolts again