Cloyes Adjustable Cam Gears
March 19, 2008 | Press Releases
Performance enthusiasts have long known the importance of proper camshaft to crankshaft timing. “Degreeing” camshafts are a common and worthwhile step in performance engine building. Modular engines seem to respond particularly well to this, with 2 or more camshafts not only are you trying to phase the camshafts with the crankshaft, but also with each other.
Traditionally with modular engines this process has been time consuming and difficult. This is most often due to the lack of a good, reliable adjustable timing gear set. Although a couple of aftermarket companies have tried to remedy this situation, some of the solutions haven’t been particularly well conceived. Like many modular engine builders, Logan Motorsports was looking for a reliable, easy to use adjustable cam gear that would also allow us to make quick cam timing changes on the dyno.
Enter Cloyes. Cloyes products are very familiar to pushrod engine builders and they have a great reputation in that area. Specializing in high quality timing components, it was only natural that their first modular product would be an adjustable cam gear. When we found out that they were looking to produce an adjustable timing set, we expressed our interest to them and also let them know what the modular market was looking for. They listened very well and the resulting product is extremely effective, simple, and reliable.
Unlike many adjustable cam gears the Cloyes gears do not rely on a series of small bolts to keep it from moving under load. They use two small bolts to keep the gear from moving while you are timing the engine, but it relies on the large factory cam bolt to keep everything in place under load. The factory cam bolt sandwiches the two pieces of the adjustable gear to keep it in place, which is much more reliable. Not only is this design very reliable, but it reduces the mass of the cam gear and allows for very easy cam changes even with the front cover still installed. In combination with their smart and useful “hex” tool it makes cam timing changes very painless and quick.
We performed initial testing for Cloyes on the prototype gears, and they worked even better in practice than in theory. Not only were we able to find more power from the engine that we did testing on, but even just bolting the cam gears on in combination with their billet crank sprocket increased the power. Degreeing the camshafts revealed why, the Cloyes gear set have a much higher machining tolerance than the factory units and phased the camshafts much closer to each other than the factory units did. We have run these cam gears to 8500 rpm and have performed many dyno pulls without any failures or any issues with the cam timing moving.
The cam gears are offered in 3 different kits. You can buy just the “Sprocket Kit” which has the two adjustable gears and the “hex” tool. Then there is a “Short Kit” that has the adjustable gears, the billet crank sprocket, and the polished high performance chains. The “Full Kit” comes with the gears, crank sprocket, chains, plastic chain tensioners, and chain guides. The billet crank sprockets are available for either the stamped steel trigger wheel or the powdered metal trigger wheel. The gears and the “Short” kit will work on both 2V and 4V engines. The “Full” kit has chain guides for 4.6 2V engines. Approximate pricing is as follows:
Short Kit = $459
Full Kit = $589
