New camshaft for TVR350i (Fitted with SD1 Vitesse Engine)

keynsham1

keynsham1

Active Member
Any idea what the best 'drop in' camshaft is for an SD1 Vitesse V8? I usually go for standard as they always work but I understand the 3.9 land Rover cam is a good option? I am not looking for race car performance, just driveability!!
 
Does anyone know what the lift of a Rover V8 standard camshaft is? I see 0.39" quoted a lot. Is this right? I am talking about when measuring the actual lobe of the camshaft.
 
I think I have worked out my own answer. Standard valve lift is 0.39", Rocker mechanical advantage is 1.5 so cam lift is 0.26"
 
Hi, There's more to cams than the lift, there's also valve timing and overlap having arguably more effect. The camshaft is the heart of the engine. If you want drivability then stick with a standard cam, more power comes at the expense of torque, which is what you want for drivability. A new camshaft will see an improvement over a used one.

Colin
 
I spent weeks reading about cams before I rebuilt my engine and managed to get really confused, so I rang a well known engine tuning company to have a chat about them. The tech guy basically read out what it said on the website, so wasn't helpful, he knew less than I did !

I then rang V8 Developments and spoke to Acea, who knew what he was talking about. I explained what I wanted the engine for, and he advised me to use his Stealth Cam. The pistons did need to be machined slightly to take the cam though. I was also looking at air flowing the heads (He took mine to Warrior spec), balance the bottom end (got a local racing engine builder to do that bit), fit top hat liners, and a few other bits.

It might be an idea to give him a call if you want a drop in replacement.
 
You can get away with a sportier cam in a light car with manual transmission without much compromising drivability. It's probably more a case of tuning how it feels rather than much more performance. I believe TVR engines (I know yours isn't) have a higher rev limit (6000 from memory). That would absolutely require a cam to give more top end or otherwise the last 1500rpm would be somewhat pointless.
 
keynsham1 said:
Any idea what the best 'drop in' camshaft is for an SD1 Vitesse V8? I usually go for standard as they always work but I understand the 3.9 land Rover cam is a good option? I am not looking for race car performance, just driveability!!
Click to expand...
I've got a 3.9 cam in my P6 and in terms of driveability it gives you a good deal of low down grunt, likely at the expense of top end power.
 
if you look in the xl file above there is ETC8686 which seems to be std advanced 2 deg. If you look for that on the web you will see that its treated as though its interchangeable with ERR5924, which is bog std - 30/75,68/37 timing. In all I find it confusing , there doesnt seem to be a specific 3.9 cam. Still undecided , waiting to talk to engine builder.
Actual lift at the valve will be 1.6 x cam lobe height over base dia , which should be 0.24375".
 
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