Mace V6 cams

[Cfb_rolley]

If you can get another 30 kW who cares on the lift , but I'd say that's the compromise and why they can run stock springs.

I've always seen that 30kw figure followed by "with OTR intake and exhaust", which is another reason why I was looking for experiences - how much of that 30kw was attributed to the intake, exhaust and tune?

But yeah, the ability to use stock valvetrain is probably another reason why they're relatively mild cams in terms of lift. all things considered, they're probably great choice of cams if you want a choppy idle but want to keep the nice driveability and don't want to have to touch the springs, all things that it seems like you're going to have to give up if you want more kW than what the standard Mace cams offer.

...3.45 or 3.7 gears and a Torsen centre though, for roughly the same price installed, probably a good option for me, and maybe throw the cams in whenever I need to do the timing chain, that way both can be done at the same time.

I have no idea about the answer but I love reading your posts. You have some cool stuff swimming around in your head.

Haha, thanks. Sometimes I just have far too much swimming in my head and end up sending myself down rabbit holes of "what if I did..." and "how much could I spend on...."

 

[_R_J_K_]

I've always seen that 30kw figure followed by "with OTR intake and exhaust", which is another reason why I was looking for experiences - how much of that 30kw was attributed to the intake, exhaust and tune?
things that it seems like you're going to have to give up if you want more kW than what the standard Mace cams offer.

A retune by itself will give improvements without any of the other stuff, but you do it after it all to take advantage of those components. The important thing here, and particularly for cams (turbo sizing and lag is also similar for example), is improvement in torque and where that happens in the rev range and for how much of the rev range - power and kw ratings are bad for this as they don't tell you anything about the difference in torque. That 30kw gain is usually at the very top of the rev range where you barely ever use it but you might have gained a good amount of torque somewhere else. As an exaggerated example, you could have a cam that greatly improves torque down low at like sub 2k RPM but will have zero top end, conversely some massive racing cam will pull at 7k+ RPM but will struggle to take off in stop start traffic. They could be similar in power output (not really in practice) but that number won't tell you anything about any change throughout the rev range, it's why you need to try and get your hands on dyno sheets or cam specs.

 

[harrop.senator]

Also gotta remember you're not talking about a single cam here.

Joys of quad cams with vct on every stick that's why you need someone who knows how to tune modern motors. With the ability to choose the intake opening even and exhaust closing event specifically while retaining full duration plays a huge part.

In the Nissan world an aftermarket camshaft with vct still working and only on one cam see's a 5-700 rpm spool difference on big turbos.

Vct is an absolute godsend and even with single camshafts can make another 20-50kw in places under the curve when retro fitting to the LS.

 

[Cfb_rolley]

Man DOHC VVT is such an underrated advancement. throw an RB25 head on an RB30 and it's incredible how much difference just having the ability to adjust intake and exhaust separately and the VCT makes.

 

[harrop.senator]

Yeah man my ca actually has staggered intake and exhaust cam sizes and took some cam timing to get it where we wanted. I'm pretty sure the intake is +2 degrees and the exhaust is -4.

I couldn't believe the torque curve difference when we fitted 256 vct's in a mates 25 with the same turbo as my 25 had with the 264 hks. His midrange was huge and the boost threshold came down much lower.

 

[Cfb_rolley]

More useless shower thoughts on cam profiles for these things...

The ports on LFX aren't particularly massive, if the ports/intake/exhaust system are unable to flow enough, then there would be absolutely no benefit to having a greater curtain area at a certain point, therefore greater duration would be of more benefit than valve lift. Going to LLT heads and using the bigger LFX valves so that you can port both the intake and the exhaust side as well as use decent extractors might give you higher flow you'd need to get some use out of having more lift.

Thinking further, at 11.5:1 compression (even higher on the 3.0L), I dare say the piston to valve clearance is also pretty tight so without cutting deeper valve reliefs in to the piston crown or dropping the rod length or something, there may not be enough clearance for higher lift, a physical limitation.

Perhaps the LFX simply can't support more lift than it already has and Mace chose to compromise there as a result - take away lift to preserve the valve springs with little consequence, but increase duration for some benefit - not a big gain but a gain regardless and without consequence. I would absolutely love to compare the specs of the factory cams and the Mace cams and know a bit more about what they encountered during the R&D of them, because I do know there was a lot of work that went in to getting them to where they are now.

I guess if you *really* wanted to just set a big pile of money on fire for no good reason, you could grab some LLT heads, cut the chambers/seats for LFX valves, port the **** out of them, throw some shorter LT4 rods in, stick a set of cams with a custom profile, maybe 210 duration and some big lift, and beefier valve springs.

...Or, you know, just put it on boost and hope the auto doesn't grenade itself...

 

[F1Aussie]

They did offer remote tuning at one point but not any more. Brisbane Turbo and Tuning was who they recommended close to me, and basically what was discussed was that they could definitely tune them, but not really the profile I'd be looking for. The regular Mace cam has a longer duration but less lift than the factory cams, I guess that's the compromise they settled with to not lose much torque in the low RPM range and keep nice driveability. I could consider going with a custom grind to have the duration AND lift, but then that could also be another can of worms.

What are the specs for the factory cam? I gave not been able to find any info about them.

 

[Dazza27]

Personally not worth it. I hate the ride down low. Get a good tune better value for money