Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Just wanted to know my options if I need new cams, they are wearing on the lift point of the lobes and the teeth have seen better days but ok for the moment.

I know a new porsche set will be approx £1000

I have found a firm in the USA who custom make them for about £800 dollars which might be a better option.
http://www.jmengines.com/

Do I have any other options, I have tried the usual people like piper cams and kent cams etc with no joy.

Try Euro Car Parts they are a bit cheaper than the OPCs. There is a place in the US that fits new sprockets to old cams, but their name escapes me at the moment. I think that they charge about half the price of a new cam (RS Barn maybe?).


Do you need both cams?
I got away with just one one mine, the other had almost no wear at all.

I have found a company in the USA who do porsche ones for about £500 the pair.

I cannot see the point of putting new sprockets onto worn cams, it seems porsche cams have pretty poor finish when it comes to the chemical hardening. It has worn off the lobes on the girlfriends 968

Apologies, I missed the comment about the lobes being worn, it is usually the sprockets that wear.

As the car is a later one, I think it should have the improved cams on anyway. How many miles has it done?

Which company in the states has the cheap cams?

Simon

I wouldnt worry to much about the lobes but be very careful about the teeth!!

I would only buy Porsche cams, there is a guy on the 968 forum who bought re-manufactured and the teeth have stripped! You can only imagine the results.

Rich

Hi Rich,

My cams are fine, Hartech checked them and we replaced the one with a bit of wear as preventative maintenance with a genuine Porsche item.
I think that the cam which failed on the guy on the 968 forum had had it's sprocket welded up and re-profiled hadn't it?
I seem to recall that the RS Barn ones have new sprockets fitted?

If Ditonics has found a source of Porsche cams for £500 for the pair it may be of use to others as I think I paid almost £400 for one a couple of years back.

Simon

You could try these people

http://www.rsbarn.com/968cam_repairs.html

I came across their website when reading an article on 968 cams at http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/

I've had the cams on my 968 replaced a few months back and they were £883 + VAT plus fitting.

You could buy decent used cams? I have one good cam left for an S2 (exhaust I think), I'm sure other members have the other one should you need it.

Pretty certain that 944 S2 cams are different to 968 cams.

Are you sure? I thought the 968 was going to be the 944 S3, but now you mention it the cam belt arrangement is different. Other engine parts might have been altered.

I think I just answered my own question?

Think so

968 was going to be 944 S3, but has Variocam, whereas the S2 has fixed cam timing.

Dead right Simon the 968 uses a variocam mechanism which is considerably different to the fixed timing of the S2, found an interesting article on checking and reasoning why the variocam unit has a habit of failing and is similarly to cam tensioner pads on the S2 not an inspection item by Porsche.

http://www.cannell.co.uk/968_Workshop_M ... shafts.pdf

From http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/fb.asp?m=418794 (albeit from 21/12/2008):

Just to add that Andy does all my servicing.... top bloke

One issue of very modern oils, they have less zinc because it affects catalytic converters but this causes cam wear on older cars.
One of the reasons I stick to Valvoline VR1 Turbo 15/50W