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Old Oct 22, 2008 | 10:18 AM
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John L.
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From: Blacksburg, VA
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Default Re: turbo cams vs regulars cams

It's easier to turn up the boost than to swap cams IMO, when cams are expensive you go for them after you've already figured out you don't want an ever larger turbo because of lag, so you go for a power improvement that doesn't involve a bigger turbo. It depends a lot on costs though. With a Ford DOHC 4.6 V8 cams cost $1500 a set so it's not worth it for most people. Cams are considerably cheaper for most smaller and/or single/twin cam engines. The DOHC Mod has 4 cams and it's not very popular so that's where the cost comes in.

As for a cam being specifically for turbo use, they usually have less overlap and smoother idle which helps with efficiency and spoolup. They may run long durations and/or high lifts but keep the overlap to a minimum because under boost the exhaust backpressure pre-turbo is often 2 times the boost pressure and this can cause a reversal of flow during overlap as exhaust pressure at the valve will be higher than boost pressure at the intake valve.

For a VTEC engine however, you have a smooth cam at lower RPM anyway, so really you just need to be mindful of where you switch over to the high cam at. It's still possible to find gains with less overlap and more lift/duration on the high cam but that's where my lack of direct experience with Hondas comes into play so can't say much about that.