Thread: Williams Helical Camshaft for SR type engines.

Thank you Kiwi - that explains it - if PB magazine had passed on the message motoring history may be different now (or maybe not).

Ben - the economics of the whole variable cam business is the a problem. For quite a few years we have had the potential to make simple Type 1 cams for the Daihatsu Charade and SOHC Ford sixes. The problem is that both of these types of car are obsolete now. A Type 1 cam for either would cost (with centrifugal controller) maybe $1500 to $2000 (this is what it cost to make them). This typically would be about three times the price of the whole Ford or Charade - hard to justify spending more money on the cam than the whole car is worth. However I don't know much about business or economics - maybe the cams could be made in China for $500 or so. But then there maybe quality problems - you don't hear much about Chinese cams.

Are SR engines still being made?

Unfortunately not

Althoug the SR engine is no longer in production, I would suggest that its use by date would last for at least another 10 years.
If you guys are interested to have a good look at a VE cyl head, I would have one in a couple of weeks. I would freight it to where you are located with the understanding that I will get it back unless you want to purchase it if needed to mill or cut away components not needed.
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Gerry

If you are going to make the cam you make it for the de. There are plenty of de's out there in all forms, rwd and fwd. Plus these are still at least a decade away from death or more. IMO there are simply not enough ve engines produced to consider making this cam for a ve engine. That and the fact the ve also has duel lobes so the benifits would be less.

so

from a marketing point de wins. (bigger market)
from a production point de wins. (easier to adapt)
from and increase in benifits over stock point of view de wins again.

i dont see the variable lift being too much of an issue. Yes variable lift is good. But look at the tomei pon cam, it still runs 11.5mm lift and only 256 duration spread this to 280-300deg and you have a decent cam there.

I think the key in designing the cam should be kept simple;
Run a fair wack of intake advance to aid low end response and keep detonation down, then add duration to get the top end back.
shoot for poncam response with a typical stage 3 cam top end, this way you can easily run 12mm lift. That level of lift wont cause too much of a prob down low and wont restrict you top end.

I don't see a $1,500 cam going over very well at all here. =(

through economies of scale if you can get that figure closer to the $1000 mark i do see a lot of drifters buying it

Yah the RWD market would certainly be the place to go. They might be able to swallow a $1k cam that gives them big benefits. However "economy of scale" is way easier to say than it is to do. Need to find a place willing to do a relatively small production run, with high quality (AKA not China).

(FWD cams and RWD cams are identical except for the length of a single dowel pin I believe.)

true that, easier said than done. Not impossible however.

yeah, i think its fwd can ca go into rwd but not the other way due to no provision for the dissy.

I think it would have to be the DE.

All this discussion about cost of the cam etc. is, of course, the main point. There is no question that the various cams work well - but could they be made cheap enough?

Another economic factor is the legal position - if the cam is blamed for an accident or an engine blowup - we really don't want to put ourselves in this sort of legal position.

Would the cams actually be legal with regard to emission laws etc.? Once again we really don't want to put ourselves in a dodgey legal position.

It is questions like this that have held up progress rather than actual mechanical problems.

This is also why we have tried to become associated with a much bigger company who would have more experience with the legal and economic hurdles.

I think the legal issues are pretty simple. You just have to state, like any performance company does, that the cams are to be used at your own risk and are for off-road use only.