i'll do my best to check back on this thread, but i just dont seem to find my self on these forums as much as i used to before.
4-5 months ago.
i got looking into the idea of doing a new cam swap. Triflow cams. they dont exist for the LD9, hence the new swap. i contacted Geoff of Colt Cams to do the work out in BC. great guy to deal with by the way.
i gathered info, parts and pricing. bought a whole spare head off of Matt (nota24) so i would have cams to send out for regrinding and still have a car to drive in the mean time. then i ran into a realization... why am i sinking all this money into a car thats only worth maybe $1000? seriously, it was going to cost me the value or more of the car itself to do this little project.
this has nothing to do with Geoff by the way. i mean it when i say hes a great guy to deal with, i just came to the realization that i cant put that kind of money into my car.
so, i cut my losses. time passed. i put the head up for sale with no takers.
so, a couple of weeks ago i was talking with shane (autogod,
innovativetuning@rogers.com). he got an idea stuck in my head. i went straight to work doing some research. some measuring and comapring later, shanes idea looks like it would work.
now, the idea was this: if its the exhaust cam of the LD9 that seems to be so deficient in comparison to the intake cam, then lets swap it out. been done before right? people have swaped in secret exhaust cams only and left the stock LD9 intake cam alone. though this is true and similar to the idea we had, what we did was very different. as far as i can tell, its the first time a swap like this has been done to an LD9.
the research begain with comparing 2 cams:
the stock LD9 exhaust cam and the stock LD9 intake cam...
let me explain my findings
both intake and exhaust cams have the same journal bearing dimensions. really, it looks like both cams are cut from the same blank. the difference seems to be that the cams are about 90* apart from each other.
so we decided to go for it. we have dubbed this swap the slappy cam swap. why? when i used to work with shane, slappy was one of my many nick names. also, it sounded like something you would find on a bad porn site which gave us a bit of a laugh.
so here is the collection of things that were changed in this swap and their costs.
- LD9 intake cam---------------------------------$50 (whole spar head)
- Tensioner (installed a 96 one piece)----$55 (a 2 piece tensioner was $70)
- oil----------------------------------------------------$9 for 5L of Quaker State at Wal-Mart
- filter--------------------------------------------------$6 Fram from Wal-Mart
thats it.
whole swap cost me $120 and really, the tensioner was optional.
heres the fun part. actually swapping the cam.
the hard part wasnt the cam swap really. the cam gears, buckets, everything are all the same.
we started sunday at about 11:00 am
we tore the motor apart the necessary way. mount out, crank pulley and timing cover off, exhaust cam cam cover pulled off... we slid out the old exhaust cam and in went the slappy cam. we timed the slappy cam to the intake cam and.... *&^*&^%*&%!!!!!elevN!1!!
we lost the timing... the chain came off the crank. for the next few hours we tried to retime the motor. we fought with it for a LONG TIME. we thought we had it. bolted it up, filled her with oil, and turned the key. and turned the key.... we eventually got it to start, but it ran like ass. we hooked it up to HPT to log, and it should that MAP was WAYYY low... bad overlap of the cams, timing was wrong.
at this point it was 8pm. it was either try it again or swap back in the stock exhaust cam. so we do what any frustrated people would do, curse alot and try it again.
this time we had the motor torn apart in 30 minutes. we put the stock exhuast cam back in so we could retime the motor and gain OE timing again.
this time we made damn sure we wouldnt lose timing. we zip tied the chain to everything and wedge a bolt in between the chain can the crank, the zip tied the bolt to the crank shaft so it wouldnt move.
with timing being held in place, we dropped the slappy cam in it again. we timed it again, this time using an even more accurate way than the first time. we attached the cam gear sprocket, fitted the chain to the gears, placed the tensioner and shoes. we bolted it up again...
turned the key...
fired up first try
its been a few days now, and although i havent really pushed it, the car feels good. huge improvement over stock? maybe not yet. we still have to retune and its now going to be in need of a header.
so whats the point of this swap?
its cheap. i had a spare head laying around that i couldnt get rid of. so, with a little ingenuity and team work, we invented a new cam swap. i dont expect this swap to be met with the warmest reception, especially since theres no proof of gains right now.
but if you look at the differences between the LD9 intake cam and the secret cam swap exhaust cam (90-94 LO exhaust) theres not a huge difference. this cam swap should be something people might want to consider if they happen to have a spare head or LD9 laying around.
the swap itself wasnt that hard, timing it was the hard part. we came up with a great way to time it, but that info might remain a trade secret.
1997 Cavalier Z24
Bomz Short Ram Intake
Vibrant Cat-Back
KYB GR2 Struts
Goldline 1.75" Springs
RK Sport Upper Insert
RK Sport Lower Dogbone
Custom Tune by Shane @
innovativetuning@rogers.com
15.647 @ 88.02 MPH