1976 1800 Oil Pressure?

[jon8christine]

Thanks for the nice write-up. The timing belt kit was purchased from spiderroadster and is correct. All the teeth and length are correct when fully installed. My photos are just laying the belt on top to make sure the new cam shafts and gears all line up. I'm guessing the new fresh off the boat 40-80 cams from Vicks just don't line up the same as the original fiat ones.

[18Fiatsandcounting]

I'm guessing the new fresh off the boat 40-80 cams from Vicks just don't line up the same as the original fiat ones.

Could be. I've never played with aftermarket cams, but I do know that lining up the pulleys is tricky, even with stock pulleys. Sometimes I have lined up the pulleys with their marks (or thought I did), and the teeth didn't line up, but then I moved the pulley just slightly so the teeth mated with the belt, and found that the alignment hole was actually more closely lined up with its mark. Parallax error or my bad eyes or the like.

-Bryan

[Nut124]

The tools and time I have, experience is what I'm gaining as I build an engine for the first time this year thanks to all the helpful folks on this forum.

I threw the old cam gears on and they have the same timing belt alignment (maybe one of the gears advanced 1/16"). Vick Auto said to advance the intake by one. I assume in layman's terms he means rotate the intake cam CCW half a tooth until the belt is aligned, leaving the adjustable gears alone for now? This would increase the LSA and start with a more mild tune right?

Thoughts?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16GiqgH ... p=drivesdk

I have used two sets of the same adjustable cam gears and I would only use them if you plan on fully degreeing the cams.

I would not trust the "zero" mark on these adjustable cam pulleys. If not fully degreeing, I would use factory pulleys.

These adj. pulleys also have problems with concentricity, loose tolerances, which, unless carefully addressed, can result in belt failure.

It is hard to assess the timing alignment with the belt partially off the pulleys. Put the belt on, noting any initial mis-alignment. Then rotate the crank a few rotations and assess crank/cam alignment.

Regarding the "advance" vs "retard". I kind of agree with Vick's advice. Advance the intake cam. However, to advance the cam, you'd rotate the cam CW to line up, not CCW. Looking from the front.

The 40/80 is actually a pretty "big" cam. Good for 7500rpm in an ideal setup. If this "big" cam were retarded, low end torque would suffer greatly due to intake flow reversal, with some minimal gain at above 6000rpm, perhaps.

If it were a factory stock cam, I might suggest retard it. But not the 40/80.

Sorry, I had this backwards earlier:
Retarding the cam = higher cam C/L. like 110 or 112
Advancing the cam = lower cam C/L. like 104 or 106

DOCH cams do not really have a LSA. Just the difference between EX and IN centerlines, which can be adjusted at will, unlike the LSA in a V8 cam. The LSA is in cam degrees, where as the cam C/L s are in crank degrees. So a DOCH setup with 110/110 cam timing would equate to 110 LSA. As would 108/112.

[Nut124]

Just to clarify:

Advancing intake cam = smaller IN C/L number
Retarding ex cam = smaller EX C/L number

If I were in between teeth, I would move both cams towards TDC. Turning IN cam CW and EX cam CCW to line up. In single cam terminology, reducing LSA.

The reason for this is that late IVC and early EVO kill low end.