The standard that most, but not all American manufacturers use is .050". Some use different numbers, but this has become a standard, of sorts. I don't know where Fishey got his "norm" and I won't say he is wrong, and he may be using a measurement that is used in Europe, for instance. That means you may see other measurements used, but using something that everyone else uses means you have a basis for comparison. Crane Cams has a series of FAQs that describe measuring cams, etc, and this is what they say about where to measure duration.
http://www.cranecams...view.php?s_id=4
Basically, if you go too much lower on lift for where you start measuring, you are not certain of consistency. I appreciate your measuring at .006", but damn, that dial indicator barely started to move, and I'll bet it is harder to be consistent at that level.
Look at the Crane Cam catalog for several engines nearly the size of the whiteblock:
http://www.cranecams.com/190-191.pdf
for the Ford Duratec DOHC 1.8 - 2.3 engine. Note the duration specs. They show "advertised" duration, and duration at .050" lift. Note that the duration on the high performance cams is almost the same as the Volvo cams I measured at .050" lift. I suspect that your measurement at .006" will produce about the same actual time the valves are off the valve seat as my measurement, just different starting point. Notice the difference in lift, however, in their highest performance engines! nearly .450" or more on some engines, and note that many have way more lift on the intake. (But they are not turbo engines, so may need more lift to fill the cylinder.)
Look at the cams for the Chrysler 2.4 engine in the PT Cruiser:
http://www.cranecams.com/150-151.pdf
Note that once again, they have about the same duration as our turbo cams.
Try other engines of so called high performance small engines:
http://www.cranecams.com/262-263.pdf for Honda
Again, note that the high performance VTEC engines have similar cam duration.
http://www.cranecams.com/268-269.pdf for Mitsubishi EVO engine 4G63
http://www.cranecams.com/282-283.pdf for Toyta 4 cyl, and also 6 cyl 2JZE engine, notable for making massive horsepower!
The best one for comparing a large number of engines is Kelford, from Australia:
http://www.kelfordca...cationGuide.pdf
They gave "advertised duration" then measure same cam at .050" lift, other at 1 mm lift, which is .0394". Check out their duration and lift figures for high performance cams.
What many people don't want to know is that duration is somewhat dependent on engine size. A larger engine will allow you to use longer duration cams, and have a decent street behavior, but still be a strong performer. Smaller engines need to have less duration. Since our engine is a turbo, I suspect that we can get timing that you'd normally see in a larger engine, but that is because we have the turbo; remember, when F1 was first using turbos in competition with NA engines, they had an "equivilency" formula that meant a turbo engine's displacement had to be multiplied by a factor of somewhere around 1.3 or 1.5 to equate it to the size of a NA engine with the same power.
Volvo has a cam with actually decent duration, but the lift is less than some of these very high performance cams. That also makes a huge difference.
When Volvo was in the BTCC with the 850 wagon and then the S40, they had 2,000 cc 5 cyl NA engines, but the best Volvo could produce was 260 HP, while their competitors had 285 hp. So TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) was hired, and they basically took the Volvo head, chopped off the top half of the head, chopped off the face of the intake and added a new side to the head to produce straighter intake ports, and built up a new cam tower set up that allowed them to go from about .300" lift to .825" lift. I am certain that their duration was quite high, but the lift was what did it. (See Racecar Engineering, Volume 19, Aug 2009 for details) Guess I'd say that going from .300" lift to .83" lift is like going from a 2 or 2.5" downpipe, to a 3" downpipe on our turbos. Much more flow. TWR ended up with around 325 hp in these highly modified engines, and the engineer that designed the head and engineered the engine admitted it was due mainly to the head.
Edited by wizzard_al, 31 December 2011 - 07:55 AM.
2001 S60 T5 Manual Black/Oak 222K miles; Ultra Racing front, rear braces, iPD front & Evolve rear sway bars, XC90 brakes, gauges
1997 854 GLT NA Manual 192K - son; 1995 854 NA Auto 240K - daughter
Previously:1959 544, 1969 122, 1971 P1800E & 142E
1974 145, 1982 244 Turbo/intercooler, 1996 854 GLT NA totalled
race cars: 1974 142E, 1962 544, 1966 122