Cam Swap Dumb Questions

SV's, older GSXR's it seems like a pretty common thing to do.

Aren't the profiles between the exhaust and intake cams different enough to matter? I had it in my head the ramps were pretty different intake / exhaust.

At what point is there too much of a change and I'll need to think about changing springs, etc to keep things reliable?

I'm looking to try and get a little more power out of an old R6, and there's not alot of specific info I can find.

 

Intake cams tend to have higher lift, longer duration then the exhaust cams. Still sticking to our conversation, I think it will work.

 

Don't do it Tom. I already can't keep up.

Taft

 

Doesn't sound legal Tom!

 

Yeah! That's why you do the swap.

 

LOL, thanks for the input everyone.

I could measure the duration and lift pretty easily, but I thought the "shape" of the ramps were different. Like exhaust valves were intended to open or close at a different rate than intakes?

I told you guys it was a dumb question. lol.

 

There very well could be different ramps, these things vary an awful lot from one model of bike to another. Just depends what the manufacturer was trying to do. There are certainly some bikes with very mild exhaust cams, this is done to limit power, cut emissions, make the power delivery very smooth, etc etc. Only way to find out is to map out the cams yourself or find somebody with a cam doctor. I've been sitting here trying to think of advice but there are just too many variables to make general statements. But does it make sense to use an intake grind on the exhaust side? Sometimes yes, absolutely. I've done it plenty of times, and then had the exhaust cam ground into a new intake cam. Or just used 2 intake grinds ala the SV. Just depends on the application and what you are trying to do. The custom race cam I came up with for Hawks is actually an exhaust race grind from something else on the intake side and a mild street intake grind on the exhaust side. The options are endless.

 

The cam tells the valve how fast, how far and at what time to open and close. You can change any of those variables, which will change the shape of the lobe. You can't change specs without changing the shape.