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[TroyDest]

Hey all, I finally passed my CA smog test so now I'm playing with changing the phase of my cam and eventually replacing with an Elgin 264.

The smog problem was solved by replacing my original catalytic converter with a cheap universal aftermarket cat. The results were astonishing. The smog techs couldn't believe how clean it was running. I'm talking about numbers like NOx of 1825 down to 8!! The cat cost about $50 from Summit Racing. I made two pipes that slip in place: one cat pipe and one straight pipe. Whenever I don't need to run the cat, I can remove it and install the "test pipe".

I installed my "dial-in-cam" gear last night and retarded it 4 degrees. Retarding a cam should give you more top end power and advancing gives better bottom end. It worked. Now at 13 psi boost, it pulls up to about 6300 rpm where before it only pulled up to 5500. The lower rpm's didn't seem to suffer though. Shifting through gears at the higher revs is great, it lifts the front end into each gear. It's hard to not break traction going into second and third. I can think of worse problems!

I'll keep ya posted of what the Elgin cam does. -Troy

[Rick MacLaren]

So Troy is this the Franco adjustable cam?

I don't understand the retard advance system. How's that work exactly? Anyone know?

[Smoothie]

That name sounds familiar - Franco. I think
it was a Franco cam sprocket that I was
looking into 10+ years ago for the car I had
at the time. I think it had a centrifugal
advance built into it? Not real sure about
that though.

[ This Message was edited by: Smoothie on 2002-03-18 10:36 ]

[TroyDest]

No, I don't have a Franco cam gear. The Franco cam gear is not an adjustable gear, it is an automatically retarding gear. It starts out advanced and as the rpm's increase it centrifugally retards. The Franco gear should be the best of both worlds: low end torque and top end horsepower. I would love to try a Franco gear but it's pricey, about $300. The especially attractive part for my application is that I have an '82 931 with the digital ignition and the automatic action of the cam phasing would not affect my ignition timing. Maybe someday I'll get a Franco gear.

For now, I have a simple adjustable sprocket made by a company in the eighties called "Dial-in-Cam". They used to make cams and sprockets for VW's. It is basically a stock steel gear which they cut through the spokes to separate the inner and outer pieces then joined them with a machined and indexed alluminum disc. I found a new old stock sprocket on e-bay and bought it. You can still get new adjustable sprockets from Neuspeed and several others. It's the same part as early Sciroccos and Jettas. They are about $120 and are really nice; they are all aluminum. Just check out some of the VW websites.