Ok heres the scenerio. About 3 years ago I built the car to be turboed. Some of the parts included Cranes 0014 cams and Crane adj. gears. Back then, the cam gears lined up fine (you might know here this is going, lol). The last time I had it out for a MLS HG, I noticed the surface of the cams were getting a lil chewed up from the PT Cruiser lifters, so they were replaced and stock lifters were put back in. When the new cams were installed I noticed that the gears no longer lined up properly.
Now this would mean it is the cams correct? If so where in the hell do I go from here? Mr.Slick and I were talkin about just putting in the stock cams back in, but I dont want to do that.
I read the most recent post about AEM's cam gears and I looked at all the links that were givin on that. I dont think this pertains to this problem.
Whatcha think??

stockers are better for turbo AFAIK ...and read. :P

Originally posted by Blizare
stockers are better for turbo AFAIK ...and read. :P

Whats AFAIK mean, or do I wanna know? When you say stockers are better for turbo do you mean stock or stock with adj cam gears? The only reason Im asking advice is because Im pulling the head off soon and Im just gonna do it then, Whatever "it" is.

Thanx for the reply

Originally posted by Blizare
stockers are better for turbo AFAIK ...and read. :P

Thats just plain stupid. Maybe you should take your own advice and go read. I had this nice long reply written out but it got wiped out. If you stay with a pretty mild setup yes stock cams are ok. Are crane 14s better than stock cams ... without a doubt. Are there better cams out there ... hell yes. Depends on what you're trying to do. Most people don't want to deal with the side effects of running a harsher setup so they stick with stock cams or 14s (they idle better than any of the other cams).

Oh yeah. Go read the Cam Discussion in the Advanced section.

Oh yeah. Go read the Cam Discussion in the Advanced section.


I will definitley read up on that thread. Thanx for pointing me to it, Im not in Advanced that much.

So Im still stuck with "Is there something wrong with my newer cams?" question. totaleklipse and I had this discussion a long time ago and he said it was the gears, but that doesnt make sense if they were fine on my first pair of cams. I know I have pretty much narrowed it down myself, I really just wanna know if anybody else has had this prob or do you have any opinions on how to take care of this?

Thanx Avenger

Have you tried to put on the stock gears with the new cams to see if they line up?

Originally posted by rucr8z2
Have you tried to put on the stock gears with the new cams to see if they line up?

I havent yet, but Im willing to try anything when I pull the head. That unfortunetley would make it to where I couldnt adjust the cams and I dont know if I want that.

Thats what I'd do. Chances are you have the not-too-good AEM cam gears which slip over time. Especially since you bought them 3 yrs ago, and they've improved their design more recently. Some people modified the older versions so they wont slip but I dont know how.

How can that be when they were fine on the first set of cams? You really think its the gears and not the cams? Also, the gears I have are Crane, I dont know if that helps.

Your first post looked like you mentioned they were AEM cams. My bad. I've never heard of lifters ruining cams.

Yeah, I hope Im wording this right, but the rollers on the lifters flaked off some of the plating on the lobes. Unless it was a bad pair of cams in the first place.

I read the whole thread about cams in the Advanced section, but I still dont think thats helping my problem, very good post though!! So what should I do about the cams or camgears being miss aligned? I did a little figuring and I eyed up the gears and changed them till they looked like they were in the stock position and it look like Im off +2 on the intake and -2 on the exhaust, if compensated correctly, but who knows? Its just back to the fact that the cam gears lined up perfectly with the first pair of cams. I just dont know what to do, Ive had them too long for a warranty and I would rather keep these and figure out what to do with them than trash them.

God my head hurts, lol

I geuss my post was a little off topic. In relation to your problem, I'd check a few things first. Have you milled the head any (even just for flatness)? Also, make sure the cams gears are reset before you go putting them back on. That can throw things off if they are already set when reassembling. Dunno what else you can check.

Thanx Avenger, I will just watch what is what while Im taking it apart, then put it back together correctly (obviously) and see what it looks like then.

Thanx again guys.............AFAIK