I'm about to have a 257 shortblock put in because I threw a rod in my one month old built 2.0. My question is, would it be worth $350 for Ver 8 cams or $225 for USDM STI cams? As it is I'll be scrappin the barrel for cash, but should I take the extra hit for upgraded cams? I'm more interested in the USDM cams because it's less of it a hit but I'll still be eating ramen for a while if I get them ;-)

 

sorry for the late reply on this ,hope this gets to you in time! the US STI cams have the same duration and just a bit more lift than the stock WRX cams, the V8 STI cams have better lift AND durration than either of the US WRX or STI cams, I would def do the extra $125 for the V8 cams if you can still get them for that price, the next step up would be a cam/spring package from Gruppe-s, though that would be around $1K. you should *theoretically* be okay with stock WRX springs and V8 cams, we just put this exact setup In Hucks car(STI 2.5 WRX heads, my old V8 cams) even though they have more lift they dont bind and since they have a longer duration than the stock WRX cams you are less likely to experience valve float, short duration cams means the valves springs have to close faster and work that much harder, long duration menas the valves close slower and the springs dont have to work as hard. Hope this helps!

 

according to jeff sponaugle's data, the jdm sti cams have less lift than any usdm wrx cam.

source: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...32&postcount=5

hth
ken

 

yes, V7 JDM STI cams have less lift than US WRX/STI cams, the 04+ JDM V8s have more lift than either the US cams, check the date on that NASIOC post

 

according to this post:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...6&postcount=60

are you saying that there are two different grinds of v8 cam?

 

okay had to dig out all my chicken scratch notations from last year when we had the V7, V8, US STI heads all blown apart, heres what I had written from back then

V7 CAMS

int - .325" = 8.25mm
ex - .339" = 8.60mm

V8 CAMS

int - .349" = 8.90mm
ex - .379" = 9.60mm

US STI

int. - .376" = 9.55mm
ex. - .383" = 9.75mm

so yeah, I was off a bit, the V8 cams do indeed have better lift than the V7s, and better intake lift than the US WRX but slightly less than the US STIs, damn I hate it when Im wrong

interesting to note the V8s have the same lift spec as the V7 Spec Cs, I have not compared their durration but I would dare a guess that they just started using the old V7 spec C cams as their regular V8 STI cam. We went through all of this last summer with our project of running V8 JDM cams in a US STI, whick required machining new hal effect sensor pickups on the back of the JDM cams. As you can see in the pick, the differnece in durration from the JDM V8 cam and the US STI cam, pretty obvious!



JDM V8 cam on the bottom with the custom sensor pickup machined on


I'll be honest with you though, Ive never been really impressed with the way AVCS cams have worked without AVCS, if you notice all the AVCS cams have higher lift on the exhaust, where all non AVCS cams, stock or aftermarket, use even lift on int/ex, and the base lobe speration angle is different on AVCS cams compared to non-AVCS. both of these attributes are made to work with variable cam timing, when you make them timed static, they just dont perform as well, since you dont have AVCS, I would suggest a set of Crower 264s (stage 2) which will blow away any stock US or JDM cam, with all the work/expense I put into the V8 cam project I honestly wish I would have just pulled the AVCS crap off my car and went with these in the first place