Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I thought I would get a better answer here. Anyways, why dont the cam manufactorers make cam shafts to where you can just line up the dots and it would be already set up perfectly?

 

There is these things call casting shifts and machining errors. Either way, if you get a 500 dollars from the bank, don't you count it to make sure you got all your money? If your trying to make the most and best hp you can out of an engine, wouldn't you make sure your timing is what you were told it should be?

 

The cam manufactures do... or atleast they try to do that. But there are tolerances within the engine that they have no control over that will affect cam position. Degreeing a cam is just a means of checking and correcting any of those items that will have an affect on cam to crank position.

 

As far as the actualy ajustment goes. How do you go about doing that with somthing like a stock timeing chain set? Because wouldnt moving it over teeth on the timeing gear end up just messing it all up.

 

I set my cam with the TDC method but when I checked it the lift changed drastically between 2 different timing chains, was off like 2 degree almost..so I had to get an adjustable timing set.. So im thinking that all timing chains are not created equal or cranks for that matter, so you degree just to make sure that the cam is in the correct spot. With the cam that I got, my cam grinder uses the lift at TDC so that makes it so much easier than getting a degree wheel and stuff. So with an adjustable timing set I can get it dead nuts on where the cam card calls for. If I didnt have the adjustable set I couldnt have done it by just using the regular chain moving the crank sprocket.

 

How do you degree it without a degree wheel? Also are there ways to do with without an ajustable timeing chain set? If so what are they?

 

I don't think I'm smart enough to degree a cam without a wheel but I still occasionally drill out the bolt and dowel holes in a stock cam sprocket so that off-set bushings can be used to manipulate the precise cam setting. Most bushing kits include bushings that will move the cam from one to eight degrees. Which way you move it depends on how you position the button. if you don't have enough aggravation in your life with everything else going on with putting a motor together, get involved in a session with a handful of cam bushings. Another unexpected delight is having a button fall out during a run due to a half-assed job of drilling the sprocket.