Aftermarket Cams

Ive been hearing some talk of people waiting on cams from kawasaki. Just wondering what type of effect this would have on the bike. I always thought that cams just put the horsepower where your wanted it... But I work with computers so what do I know...?!? :D

I guess no one knows anything about cams... :o

how bout these gams... http://www.condocams.com/legcontest/legs26/26candi.jpg oh wait.... did you say cams?

The redx looks good... :x :D

Cams are an extremely lengthy discussion, The short version is that depending on the profile and or grind/lobe height and duration, They let air and fuel into the cylinder, Generally speaking, More air and fuel = more power, You wouldn't nessasarily move the power so to speak but you might increase or decrease power in different parts of the powerband, These changes may require changes to the exhaust and or intake/fuel system as well. This is a very general discription of cams and what they do. Lift= how much the valve opens Duration= how long they stay open overlap= they amount of time the intake valve and exhaust valve are open at the same time

longer overlap higher hp

if you brought a cam from kawasaki, would you have to do any other mods other than maybe a new map on the PC?

yes you would need a new map so you would get more fuel to the rpm band that the cams were made for and you will also need stronger valve springs

Kawasakis' cams are usually hard to beat in the last few years. better be doin more than just cams if ya wanna make it worth it.

Definitly you just dont swap the cam to see whats up its not like swapping exhaust. If you have the top of the engine apart already then I could see it but. It would not be in your intrest to change the cam unless you were doing other work on the bike as well in the engine department. You would definitly need to get a diffrent map for the ECU, stiffer springs etc.

Actualy I take that back I think the springs would be fine, but I think this is where the upgraded ECU from Kawasaki comes into the picture along with some of there other parts for making an all out monster.

Actualy I take that back I think the springs would be fine, but I think this is where the upgraded ECU from Kawasaki comes into the picture along with some of there other parts for making an all out monster. So what would you or some one else here do??? keeping a mindful budget??

New cams may give a 3% to 5% power boost if dialed in correct. Generally you need new cams when you overbore a engine. Reason for that is to correct the power curve which will be bias toward midrange from overbore. Problem with new cams is that most of the time you are only displacing power rather than making power. You will loose power from somewhere to make more where you want it.

If your talking budget minded just forget about it. All the little things added up with labor wouldnt make it worth the cost. Unless your going to get pretty serious about racing and your trying to squeeze every last HP out then I would forget it, but it makes for good reading. You would be better off investing in a better pipe, filter, throttle bodies, air box, things of that nature just my opinion. I'm sure there are some guys out there that can do this type of thing themselves so it wouldnt be a big deal to, port the manifold swap the cam advance the timing, and so forth.

Getting maximal benefit will require that you get the race ECU from Kawasaki. Last I checked, that'll run you $1700 or so. I don't think "economical" comes into play here.

Economical? With a high po m/c? Yer kiddin - right? My best mod would be a diet to lose bout 20 pounds :D

This just an FYI. I spent almost $1600 back in '94 for Kawi Kit cams, springs, retainers, keepers and cam sprockets from Muzzy's. This isn't an economical upgrade. This is only the Readers Digest version of the story.

i should have maybe explained what i thought was economical, $1600 isnt bad to me, i guess i didnt want to spend $3000 to $5000 on mods! any figure with a $1,xxx is good for me. to some $3k might be economical...all in the eye of the beholder.

The 1600 I mentioned was just for the previously mentioned parts. I did all the work to install the cams. Oh, forgot to mention, had Vance & Hines port & polish the head (only seems fitting to do this) - another 900. Now, what Muzzy's didn't tell me, was that I needed to change out my valve seats from iron to some other alloy. The valve train was capable of 14,200 rpm, my engine still wasn't. Hence, I down shifted one to many while racing, hit the 14000 rev-limiter and subsequently dropped a valve seat and all hell broke loose after that. My point is, talk to someone that builds these engines for RACING purposes. It'll save you from rebuilding an engine like I had too. Thinking back this job was about $2400 not counting my labor.

any figure with a $1,xxx is good for me. As Richracer1 points out in his follow-up, there are lots more costs associated with this. Another cost you're neglecting is that to take advantage of this you'll have to ditch your Power Commander and get a full-blown Kawi Race Kit ECU. Last I checked, that by itself will run you $1700; add on top of that getting the whole thing dyno-tuned by someone who knows what they're doing. When it's all said and done, you're talking about $5k easy for the engine, ECU, and tuning parts and labor. Of course, doing all this is pointless without a full system, so toss on another $1700 for the Akropovic (you wouldn't skimp on a full system after going to such great lengths elsewhere, right?). Of course, you could potentially have yourself a 200+ HP bike at the end of all this, so if you decide to do it, you won't hear any complaints from me as long as you let me ride it next time I'm in the DC area [smilie=b:

I don't know why youd ditch the PC in favor of the retardedly overpriced 'race ecu from Kawi. I'm sure the PCIII can handle the fuel curve changes required by different grind cams. I thinknn the only diff between the ecu and the PCIII is the availability of timing options, and while that may help some, I wouldn't think it a necessity. Certainly not for almost 2k. Call Muzzy's and ask them what they think/know/have discovered about the 10's cams.

There can be hidden horse power in you stock cams. You just need to get the cam timing adjusted by someone who knows what numbers and what they are doing. I wish I knew what the magic numbers were. I would do it. http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_9604_hand/index.html

while that may help some, I wouldn't think it a necessity. Certainly not for almost 2k. If you're already spending $3k to swap cams in order to get max performance out of the bike and you stop short of modifying the timing, you're shooting yourself in the foot. The difference in performance from small changes in timing can be substantial (not addressing the 10r specifically, but tuning in general). My guess is that if you're going to pick either cams or timing changes, you should pick the timing changes first and the cams second, not the other way around. The best solution to this problem is to wait until DynoJet comes out with the timing module for the PCIIIusb. Then you'll be able to get full tuning on the (relatively) cheap.

I agree totally there is no point changing cams unless you change your timing to suit.