Camshaft Profile

[Rusty's Uncle]

Having a chat with a guy who is a classic mini tuning specialist recently I mentioned that I also had a "mini" but it was made by Fiat. Got talking about my "big" engine & that I believe that it has a very special camshaft fitted. He came up with an idea that I would never have thought of in a million years. 
The idea was to remove the cam & have new camshafts re-profiled to match the characteristics & lift . This is outside of my sphere so any comments or ideas on this one 

[bis13]

if you found someone to reprofile in such a manner would be costly i should think its normally cheaper to find a blank and have it machined by a cam specialist it depends on how much it needs to be reprofiled and the state of the cam to be worked on.

[Darrell]

We did that back in africa where they built the cam up with hard chrome and then re-ground them.

It's a bit of rocket science but very possible

[hudsonhenry]

Rusty

It would be worth getting the cam measured up to check the spec, there is a wide range of cams available off the shelf for the 500 from mild road tune to full race and what was once a rare and expensive item may already be being reproduced for reasonable money now.

Nigel

[Pete126]

As Nigel says Its a question of price, here's a link to Fiat 500 Sport Click on Engine Assembly to give you an idea of whats available and prices.

[Darrell]

The numbers confuse the hell out of me like 48/88 what do they mean? 

[Rusty's Uncle]

Wise words from you guys but Darrell I can't help thinking that you guys would have worked in a little bit of ground up Rhino horn to give it a little extra pep 
Have to agree with you though that there are so many cam options & what do those numbers mean?
I have been looking at an original copy of the Fiat 500 Shop Manual that I got on eBay  a couple of weeks back. Incredible document & definately my choice if I were cast away on a desert island but the camshaft details are referred to in terms of lift & degrees around bottom & top dead centre 

[bis13]

way too much to explain so heres the easier way!

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[Alfons1972]

Hello everybody,
I'm new here... I'm from germany and own a Fiat 500.

My explanation: the numbers tell you the timing of the camshaft:

e.g. 48/88 means, that the valve begins to open 48° before top death center and closes 88° after bottom death center.
For the valve will be open 48° + 180° + 88° it is also called a 316°-camshaft.

One of the most common camshafts is the "Abarth"-Profile of the Fiat 595 esseesse, that ist a 40/80 - 80/40 and therefore a (40°+180°+80°) 300° camshaft. Profiles with more than 300° are made for race and usually not for street use. There are not parallel (e.g. short intake-long exhaust) profiles, too.
Look at the original timings: http://digilander.libero.it/jurikiara/ANNO%202007%20-%20Cincento%20Aba/30%20-%20fasaturaalberiacammes/index.htm?t=3798994

but mention: there are big differences in quality of the camshafts. There are those made of stell and the cheaper ones that are made of cast iron...

[thepuddlejumper]

Hi, just recieved a quote of £193.50 + vat + £15.00 p&p from a local supplier of catcams for the cam detailed below.  Any advice I'm running panda head+carb, lightened flywheel and big bore exhaust

Ralph

partnr.       duration     duration    maximum lift     lift at TDC           parts      application
 

1900121  266 / 266°  216 / 216°  9.30 / 9.30mm    1.15 / 1.15mm  custom  MECH: sport
 

[grubscrew]

If you know exactly what sort of cam you need then kent cams of folkstone will re profile one  I had one done last year and it cost to have a fast road spec reprofiled for £ 97.00 inc vat and postage.

[Rusty's Uncle]

If you know exactly what sort of cam you need then kent cams of folkstone will re profile one  I had one done last year and it cost to have a fast road spec reprofiled for £ 97.00 inc vat and postage.

Now funny you should say that as I was talking to a guy a week or so back and he told me that Middle Barton Garage now only sell one "hot" cam and they are reprofiled as fast road 
I wonder how much they would charge to do 5 at a time ? 

[smallcox]

Rusty, Dear Rusty, No, No,

Middle Barton is a dirty word unless you like to pay well over the top. They don't grind your Cam they send it away, then make out its a black magic type cam and charge you loads. Kent Cams as mentioned above will grind what you want and if your not sure they will plot your cam and will recommend something that with there experience will work, they quoted me 60 notes about 5 years ago.
The original cam from the early 126 was a good cam but had little lift even for the small valves fitted to our cyclinder heads which let it down slightly but is still a good profile which is hard to beat.

Ralph, the spec is not clear but lift looks good for standard valves, duration you have listed is not so good. your inlet is about what a standard cam is but exhaust is well short.I would go for a symetrical grind looking at the build your going for.
 I run a 278 duration based on the original 126 cam with 10.2 valve lift which is a little high for standard valves whicj was ground onto my 126 original cam.
Don't get to involved with numbers as there are more factors that go into a cam like valve ramp rates, dwell, overlape, etc and this also makes it hard to plot/quote when compairing cams.

Regards the Smallcox

[Rusty's Uncle]

NO no no 
I meant that if there were a few like minded owners with the odd spare standard cam, negotiate a price to get a batch done. I guess a lot of the cost is setting up for "one off" machining jobs ang if Model Bonkton get them done there they will have the spec on file & can whip them off as quick you in your mankini 

[thepuddlejumper]

Steve, Couldn't remember the spec for the cam from our discussion at RRG. Did you say 270 and 270 with a 9.5mm lift? I tried Kent Cams web site but could not find any info on profiling your own cam.  I will contact them to get more info, thanks again.

Ralph