cam gears, cam timing and cam sensor pickup...

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cam gears, cam timing and cam sensor pickup...

Post by gse_turbo »

so I've been brainstorming today with the whole adj. cam gear and cam sensor issue. I want to throw out some simple questions and see if anyone else reaches the same conclusion that I did without giving the idea away. ...besides I may be wrong and I don't want to sound stupid :lol: , kidding.

so simple questions...
• what does the cam sensor control or monitor and what other sensors does it work with?
• when adj. cam gears are used with a cam pickup/reluctor what does the pickup need to stay with, the outer gear or the cam?
• if the pickup were supposed to be locked to the cam and instead was locked the outer gear than what would the result be?

...there are more but lets start with these.
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Post by jidasas »

It would seem to me that the sensor would relate to cam position...because it uses the position of the cam to determine when to fire the spark for each cylinder. So, If you could make the cam gears adjustable with a way of keeping the sensor in proper alignment with the cam the spark would still occur at the proper moment in the rotation of the piston etc. Using this I would think that you could use the gears to adjust the timing to the perfect point for the most power and still get the best spark timing? For example...the spark would occur according to the cam so as long as you were sure no valve to piston catastrophe would occur you could change when the valve open/close in relation to each other without changing when the spark occurs by aligning the sensor to the cam and using the gears to adjust exactly how much overlap there is between when the intake valve opens and exhaust valve closes without running the risk of throwing the spark off and causing a misfire or detonation.

anywhere close? If you can understand how I rambled that out...if not I can draw a diagram which would explain it much better.

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Post by jidasas »

For your last question...I would think that if the sensor was supposed to be locked to the cam but was instead locked to the gear..when you adjusted the gear you would change spark timing and valve open/close timing and could cause huge issues with detonation or premature firing of the spark because it would not be firing in the correct point in time for the best burn of the fuel.

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Post by gse_turbo »

perfect, we are agree basically, so now for the idea...

... the cam pick up runs halfway around the gear, the spark duration takes place that whole time. my idea it to make the pickup X% longer than from the factory or to make the cam pick up adjustable separately from the cam and gear. this way you would be able to tune the cam timing but you would also be able to change the spark duration or the spark tuning. this way you could basically fine tune the spark mechanically and eliminate any need for a timing control or perhaps even a full stand alone system.
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Post by exist3nce »

This sounds like a really good idea .......... I'm interested.
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Post by jidasas »

That would be absolutely awesome...It would be great for people going turbo too.

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Post by PrecisionBoost »

I'm pretty sure the Cam sensor has nothing what so ever to do with ignition.... it's simply there for the purpose of changing the injector system from multiport to sequential.

That is to say that the cam pickup determines which cylinder is in it's intake phase and which one is in it's power phase.

All ignition and injector timing comes from the toothed reluctor wheel.

Since the crank turns at twice the rate of the cams the ECU needs the Cam sensor to determine cylinder phase.

Hopefully you get what I'm saying.

In a multiport the ECU doesn't care which cylinder is in the intake or power phase.... it will batch fire injectors... so 1&4 then 2&3.... and it will do this twice per cam revolution.

So... that is to say it will fire injector #1 during the intake phase as well as the power phase.

In sequential injection it only fires once.... during the intake phase.... so it needs to know the position of the cams to find out whether that particular cylinder is in it's intake or power phase.

so you have to be careful to ensure your cam signal stays the same.... quite often on a 16V engine like this you will find people only changing one of the cam pullies... to avoid this issue with the cam sensor pickup.

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Post by PrecisionBoost »

I believe there is only a small window in which the ECU looks at the cam sensor.... so it's quite likely that changing it by a few degrees won't make much of a difference.

The cam sensor is either going to be 0V or 5V depending on which cylinder is in the intake phase... given the cam moves at half the speed the crank does it will be one voltage or the other during the entire rotation of the crankshaft.

Odds are it only looks at the cam sensor briefly just before firing the injector.... but given there are two injectors that are 180 degrees apart in the intake phas they would have to design it such that there is some play either way.

Odds are the ECU acquires the cam signal every 90 degrees.... probably only needs a couple of degrees to get the reading.

So.... in theory those events should be equally spaced.

If the metal part of the cam is 180 degrees then odds are pretty good that the event occur at 45 degrees and 135 degrees out of the 180 degrees available.

So in theory if it only needs say 5 degrees for the cam reading ( at high RPM.... at low RPM the acquisition would be fewer degrees ) then that leaves quite a bit of room to play..... say 35 degrees of cam rotation each way without causing an error with the cam signal.

I suppose at higher RPM the injectors have to advance slightly and spray earlier.... question is how many degrees prior to the intake valve opening.

That I guess would also have the total duration of the injector as a factor.


Hmmm.... I still have to think there is still 15 to 20 degrees worth of movement without causing a problem...... but that is just a wild guess.


If you did manage to move it too far it wouldn't be the end of the world.... it just means that the ECU would fire the injector for cylinder 4 when it should have been firing the injector for cylinder 1

That is to say that the injector would fire into the intake when the intake valve is closed.... the fuel would still get into the cylinder 180 degrees later.... so the car would still run.... but you would loose the cooling effect when the fuel hits the valve stem.... and it wouldn't vaporize the same way..... it would be more like a TBI system.

Hopefully you get what I'm trying to ramble on about here.


I think that making the pickup separate from the cam rotation is a decent idea.... but I'm not sure if it's required or not...... as there are many factors that come into play

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Post by PrecisionBoost »

Oh.... just to clarify a bit.... on any engine with a distributor an adjustable cam gear will change ignition timing.... because the distributor reference is directly from the camshaft...... so that is where most people get the idea that the cam sensor has something to do with timing.

Because we have a reluctor wheel which has a great deal of precision..... it's always the primary timing generator for the spark and fuel.

Some people hate the reluctor/waisted spark system and a few guys have connected a distributor to the timing belt.... this way it's tied into the timing of the cams and crankshaft and it allows you to adjust the timing.

In theory one could simply modify the timing belt tensioner to run a distributor..... and disconnect the wasted spark coil pack completely.

I personally thought about it a number of times...... I believe there was an LT3/J-Body guy ( sunbird or grand am ) that did this on a Nubira engine..... can't remember who did it.... I think they were on this forum a few times.

The person I'm thinking about wanted to use the older LT3 OBD1 engine management system ( designed for the 2.0L 8V turbo )

The more I think about it..... the more I remember seeing pictures posted on here... I'm sure if someone dug around they would find it ( I'm too lazy )


So...... in the end.... I hate to burst bubbles but the only way to control timing on the Nubira is to either run a piggy back system, add a distributor or somehow modify the reluctor wheel on the crankshaft so that it is adjustable (which would be fun to change..... you'd have to remove the oil pan each time you wanted to move it a couple of degrees )

I suppose the last option would be to manufacture a piece of electronics that would offset the pulse signal from the reluctor wheel.

That is to say that you could advance or retard the pulse from the reluctor in order to change timing of the ignition ( which would also change timing of the injector pulse)
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Post by Lamborgini112 »

wow, i've read that whole thing three times and my mind is still dancing.

I don't understand the issue here though. why would you want to control your ignition timing and cam timing together? doesn't that restrict your tuning ability?

When we used to go to the dyno, they always adjust our ignition timing first, then they'd play with the cam timing, then they'd check ignition timing again. Then they'd adjust fuel pressure, then check cam timing again and finally igntion again. Now granted i'm keep my mouth shut when i go to the dyno cuz i'm a total noob but don't you want to be able to use your ignition timing to make fine adjustments to larger modifications in the engine?
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Post by PrecisionBoost »

I went to see the new James Bond movie with GSiTurbo and he mentioned a good point I completely overlooked.

The outer ring of a standard adjustable cam gear will always stay in the exact same position due to the fact that it's directly connected to the timing belt..... so never mind about my rambling on about angles and stuff.

He came up with a really great idea..... if the 1.6L ECU can run the 2.0L engine then the number of teeth on the reluctor wheels must be the same.

Given the 1.6L uses an external ring it should be possible to mount the 1.6L crank pulley onto the 2.0L and make an adjustable mount for the pickup.

That is to say that you could design it such that the crank pickup is moveable.... so that you can advance or retard the ignition by a few degrees.

This would also change the injector firing point.... but I doubt it would make much of a difference.
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Post by gse_turbo »

good ideas all around. I like the last one about the external reluctor. I had been considering the idea anyways to make all the lobes on the crank identical shape which would meen loosing the ruluctor bolt holes.

in stead of making the reluctor adjustable why not make the sensor on a slide bracket. it would do the same and simplify things a but.

any ideas on how to adjust the spark and injector seperately, outside of a ECU mod or piggy back?

by the way, the guy with the 2.0 16v Sunbird is 'pontiacjeff' from engineered performance, good guy. the system works great.
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Post by PrecisionBoost »

PrecisionBoost wrote:Given the 1.6L uses an external ring it should be possible to mount the 1.6L crank pulley onto the 2.0L and make an adjustable mount for the pickup.

That is to say that you could design it such that the crank pickup is moveable.... so that you can advance or retard the ignition by a few degrees.
Yes... that is what I was talking about on the last post..... making the crank pickup moveable on a bracket


Oh ya.... pontiacjeff.... he was the LT3 guy I was thinking of.... he has a Grand Am right?

If I remember correctly.... wasn't he the one that ran the distributor off an accessory belt?

I remember commenting something about "aren't you worry the belt will slip" or something like that.... but he said he had no problems

Personally.... I think it should go onto a toothed belt like your standard timing belt.... I suppose one could take a timing gear off the crank and turn it into a separate pulley just for the distributor.

If you search around the relocation of a distributor to run off a belt is something many guys have done..... quite often it's needed when someone shoves a big V8 into something that was designed for a 4 or 6cyl..... the Chev V8 distributor sticks up pretty high and get's in the way even on truck.

Lots of V8 guys buy reluctor wheels that can be added on for better accuracy (compared to the standard distributor setup )....... I'm pretty sure MSD and Accel both make reluctor wheel add on kits..... I'm also pretty sure that the programable MSD ignition systems give an option for using an external reluctor instead of using the factory distributor or ECU as the spark reference.

Basicly with a reluctor system your pluging in true firing angle for advance/retard..... where as if you use the stock ECU as reference it's X number of degrees advanced or retarded from the stock ignition timing.

The second option is the easiest because the ECU takes care of moving the ignition point based upon factors like engine temp and map signal......... where as a direct reluctor system is pretty much static.... you dial in 22 degrees of advance at 3750 RPM and that's what you get all the time.... it won't change with the engine temp or map signal.

For all out race systems the direct reluctor wheel timing is better because you can dial in exactly how many degrees you want and that is exactly what you will get.... so you can be very agressive with your timing.

With an ECU reference you have to be more conservative.... if you dial in 11 degrees of advance and at 12 degrees you get spark knock..... then you might run into trouble if the ECU decides to advance timing a degree or two.

In a direct system you will get 11 degrees no matter what..... but with the ECU... it may be 11 or it may be 8 or it may be 14 degrees of advance depending on what the ECU decides based upon a number of factors.


Separating the injector and ignition would be next to impossible..... it sure would be cool if you could have two pickups.... one in stock location and one "adjustable" unit 180 degrees away..... basicly when the first pickup is timing for 1&4 the second would be timing for 2&3.

Problem is that the crank pickup goes to one input if I remember correctly.... so that signal is split off inside the ECU's circuit board.

If however the crank pickup had split off into two different inputs.... one for ignition timing reference and one for ignition timing reference then it would be possible to use two pickups.

All that would be required is to exchange the spark plug wire sets ( since there is a 180 offset it would try to fire 2&3 when the ECU wanted to fire 1&4 )


I still don't think it would make that much difference to the injectors if they were off by a few degrees.... the correct amount of fuel would be added no matter what.

That is to say for example.... if it was off by a bit and the intake valve closed 90% of the way through the injector squirt.... then 10% would be left over in the intake manifold for the next time the valve opens...... so you'd get 10% from the previous injector cycle and 90% from the current.... which still adds up to 100%

Given the RPM levels the difference in duty cycle from pulse to pulse really doesn't change that quickly.

That is to say I doubt there is more than a 10% increase or decrease in duty cycle per firing sequence.

Even on let off at 5000 RPM you have an injector firing 42 times per second..... so if it takes even a half second to go from say 80% duty cycle down to 10% then it has 21 injector firing sequences to reduce the fuel duty cycle by 70%.... which works out to be about 3.33% per injector firing cycle.

So...... I still don't see any real negatives for changing the timing of the injectors by a few degrees..... I mean were not talking huge numbers.... perhaps timing might be adjusted as much as 10 degrees.... which is only a 2.8% change in the big scheme of things.


So....... I personally think an external reluctor with an adjustable crankshaft pickup is a great idea..... you could integrate it into an underdrive pulley and balance the whole unit as one piece.

You could even buy the Lanos pullies and cut the factory reluctor off the pulley via a lathe.... then simply attach the outer ring to a new aluminum pulley.
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