robo_porsche

Hello

I found some "sport" cam shafts at a dealer for around 2000 EUR. I was thinking, how many hp can I gain from replacing the cam shafts, the exhaust and "the chip"? What would be a reasonable power gain?

I sounds like it would give a good bang for the buck, doesn't it?

I have a 996 C2 2002.

Robert

Byprodriver

The Porsche engineered X51 option added 25 HP but in addition to the parts you listed also included CNC ported heads & intake manifold so you might get half that gain mostly at high rpm.

logray

I've read those cams are tricky to get right...

robo_porsche

How do you mean they are tricky to get right?

Robert

MiamiC70

I don't know about Porsche engines but in my day working on Chevy's & Ford's adding just a cam would often result in worse performance unless you opened up exhaust, intake and most times had head / valve work done.

jumper5836

so your basically doing a rebuild? or do cam shafts not require ripping the engine a part.

robo_porsche

No I am not planning to tear down the engine, just open the cam shaft covers and replace the cams (or whatever thay are called). If it makes sense of course...

Robert

robo_porsche

Intake and exhaust are minor problems (cheap) but if the head and valves need work it sounds to complicted to bother.

Robert

Macster

Unless you can find someone who's done what you're thinking of doing and can report receiving good bang for the buck you're pretty much on your own.

It has been a while since I did any cam swaps but before I did any I would read up on all the various camshafts offered and compare the dyno charts to get a feel as to what I was getting and getting into. This was before the 'net so I would consume any car mag that had a review of the cam or sometimes several of the aftermarket cams being offered.

Often to get full benefit of the new cam additional changes to the engine were needed: improved intake and exhaust to name two.

And in some cases the new cam or aftermarket cam was crap.

In one case I installed an aftermarket cam (name brand too) and some time later -- I do not recall the miles now the engine had covered but the miles were way past the break-in miles -- I received an offer from someone (a car salesman believe it or not) offering to buy the car, making an offer that I could not refuse.

The deal was done and the new owner when I ran into him sometime after was quite happy with the car. But he added that he found the aftermarket cam had a flat lobe. I was thinking oh oh here comes the hit for some kind of warranty when he surprised me and said he already fixed the engine by just installing a factory camshaft. Everything else was just fine and he reported the engine perked right up and he was quite happy with its performance. (The afermarket cam probably had a bad heat treatment which is not uncommon I read, even today.)

My advice is unless you know what you are getting yourself into you are better off sticking with stock parts in this case the stock cams.

Sincerely,

Macster.