Thread: Stock Camr gear weights and differences

Evertime I take the valve cover off of one of these moters I look at the cam gears. Well anyway tonight I got to thinking. Why do these motors have some gears with holes and other ones have the gears with no holes.

I would love to know the weights of the gears with the holes compared to the ones without. But Im not pulling the gear just to see. Can anyone weight them? I mean I know it wont be a big difference. But any rotational mass lost is a gain. So im just curious as to what the weight differences are. Also I wonder why Nissan changed the design so many times.

I didn't know there was any differences. I've got several out in the garage, but it'd be next week before I can weigh them on a decent scale.

Ok so I know there might not be alot of people interested in this. But the Cam gear with the holes is a significant amount lighter then the ones with no holes. Thats gotta equal some throttle response just like lighter pulleys.

No holes: 409 grams
Holes: 381 grams

Thats 56 grams or 2 ounces. Not a big amount. But if your in there its definately better then the ones with no holes. Itll prob rev just that lil bit faster since its less weight to move.



I just happen to have my motor on the stand swapping the head out and I had to take the gears off of my old motor (Avenir). Are these just a newer version or have people seen the ones with no holes in newer motors? Just an interesting lil find.

My 96 LP has holes, as well as my old 92, and 93 HP did. In fact I've never seen them without holes. Weird. I've seen alot of em at junk yards as well, and they were the same. I learn something new every day. lol

Yeah its wierd. The spot where the holes go are Indented. But they arent drilled out. If my camera worked Id snap a pic.

I think I remember seeing the indentations you are referring to. I'm making an educated guess saying that they are caused by the force of the hydraulic press used to punch the gears from blanks before they are heat treated. That's usually how simple pieces are made like that from soft steel, then heat treated to harden it. It's cheaper for mass production to do it that way.

I can confirm that the Lowport (all variants) have the gears with holes in them... Side note. I wonder what the CS gears weigh in at. They have holes where all the dowels are in addition.

Iintresting, I wonder/id assume aft cam gears are much lighter them stock. I should throw em on the scale.

Stratton.

Aftermarket aluminum cam gears typically are lighter (sometimes much lighter) than their OEM counterparts. Upgrading to them is a good idea even if you're not going to make use of their adjustments.

However, aftermarket cam sprockets are almost always made of steel, and I assume they are heavier than their OEM equivalent because of the added complexity and hardware. I'd love to find out that we have aftermarket cam sprocket options that are lighter than stock.

I mean to keep it funky you could probably get a machine shop to drill even more smaller holes in the cam gear to lighten it up even more but keep it balanced. Just like these light weight flywheels out there that just have sections of metal taken from them to make them lighter.

Im just gonna throw in the ones with the holes and be happy the ones without are gone!