How to Degree Your Camshafts?
Degree Your Camshafts
What You Will Need:
- You can’t degree cams without a degree wheel. A degree wheel will reveal all sorts of information relating to valve timing events. Larger wheels typically yield more accurate results.
- You’ll also need a dial indicator with some sort of base that’ll attach firmly to the cylinder head. If your dial indicator’s got a magnetic base, bolt a scrap piece of steel to the cam caps and place it there.
- Some sort of pointer, like a coat hanger or a stick of welding rod, along with a piston stop will also be necessary.
- Your cam manufacturer should’ve provided you with a cam card. It’s got all sorts of important information on it that you’ll need to degree your cams.
- Gather whatever hand tools you’ll need to access your valvetrain, adjust your valves, and rotate your crank.
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The anatomy of the camshaft. This diagram reveals some of the fundamentals that you should understand before attempting to degree cams.
It’s important that the dial indicator’s needle remains parallel to the valve. This is the only way to achieve an accurate reading.
This cam diagram reveals the cams’ relationship to the four-stroke cycle. The big red curves represent each cam’s profile. As their centerlines are adjusted by the degreeing process, their curves may shift either left or right across the diagram.
When degreeing cams, it’s important to close the valve lash completely and take all measurements from the top of the retainer, not the rocker arm.
Most forced induction and high-output naturally aspirated engines will respond positively to small overlap adjustments, even after being degreed. Even so, cam degreeing allows for a sound baseline in terms of centerline position, essentially speeding up the tuning process.
