Morning all, as christmas approaches, im in Eastbourne at my girlfriends place, shes at work and boredom hits me.
So i decide "ooo ive had them cams recently fitted, lets do a write up" so here it goes.
Price of cams:
£100 second hand.
Appearance:
Well you certainly wont notice the difference between your 2.5 cams and these, except the obvious markings...Make sure they have a G marking.
Condition:
Have a quick look, make sure they're not heavily worn/damaged in post. 1mm of difference will make a big difference.
Whats it cost to have fitted?
Well, most of the top end bits will need to be removed, so expect anything from £150-£250 in labour, unless you carry out the work yourself..
Budget in a timing belt, OR (highly recomended) the whole kit, as its usually the tensioners which fail on these. So add another £80-£100 into the mix.
Also will need 2 rocker cover gaskets, £4-£5 each, so £10 in total.
Apparntely my radiator had to be removed to access it all, so add another £10 into the mix for coolant.
So we've worked a bill of:
£470. It cost me £440 in total personally.
Initial thoughts when starting the car and what it feels like to drive:
Well straight away i noticed the engine sounds a bit different. Revving whilst in nuetral, no noticable difference.
Lift the clutch move off...I could tell ive lost a bit of power upto 3500rpm. Infact below 2000rpm it felt a tad sluggish. But then in all fairness its a 1500kg car and ive got a good 70kg sitting in the boot.
So we're at 3500rpm, and it sounds like the engine is starting to wake up properly...Hit 4000rpm, now the engine sounds insane and effortlessly revs to 6750, ooo into the red already? Shift gear, 1st > 2nd, TC kicks in as floor is a tad bit damp...Nice.
Before you know it you're doing 60 in 2nd, and will easily go past the legal speed limit in 3rd, luckily im not testing on public roads.
Car just keeps and keeps on revving and really feels like it wants to be revved.
Nice i thought.
Now back to London style crawling around - This type of driving is all about low end torque, i use to drive a Mondeo TD running 18psi of boost previous to this. The Omega still feels torquey, however i can definately notice the difference with these cams. Feels quiet sluggish.
Fuel economy:
I havent noticed a difference, only real difference is as the car likes to be revved more, i tend to do so, thus use alot more fuel.
However if driven normally fuel consumption is the same.
Conclusion:
Performance -
If you drive on long open roads, these cams will be perfect for you.
If you crawl around in traffic forget it, how often will you exceed 3500rpm?
Costs -
For me a timing belt was due, therefore it only added £120 onto the bill which IMO is definately worth it.
IF you're doing the above work via a mechanic purely for these cams, its not worth the £440. A decent air filter and exhaust and service will probably see you similar gains.
Id only recomend this mod if you are due a timing kit, then its worth doing.
Future plans:
I assume with the valves open a tad longer the engine will thank me for better air flow and perhaps a better exhaust.
So perhaps a panel filter or enclosed air filter and a decent cat back non-chavy-vvvvvvvvvveeeeeeetech just kick in y0/noisy style exhaust.