Good camshaft?
 

I was thinking about buying new cams to try and push as much power out of my little 1.6 as possible. I currently have 264/264 cams; they where originally OBX junk--had them reground at Crower though after the motor was taken apart. What do you think of these cams? T203-C Camshaft suggestions?

Your current cams have 264 degrees of duration? how much lift?

I would talk to Integral cams and see if you can get some cams ground at like 255-260 degrees with 9-10mm of lift. I know they make 1.6 cams, but their website doesn't show any good turbo cams for the 1.6, just the 1.8.

They have 9MM of lift currently, I'm just wondering how much power I would get by getting a slightly higher degree cam, and an extra 1MM of lift?

Hm, well Im sure the added lift would show some gains, who knows how much, there are so many variables to think about. The one thing I worry about is the possibility that a little more duration could have negative effects, the only thing thats gonna save you is the fact that youre running big boost, so under the right circumstances the manifold pressure will prevent any backflow during valve overlap. But if its not able to prevent backflow the added duration could be very bad.
The on the market turbo cams seem to be for more mild setups than yours, so its hard to say whats gonna work. I would send a PM to 'elimnator77' on M.net, I believe he was able to make big gains with some custom ground cams

Thanks a lot for your help, Elimnator77 isn't online much I don't think. I will give him a shot though.

Do not be afraid to go big on camshaft. The miata community for some reason does not embrase the fact that camshafts and cylinder head is very important. Turbos seem to be a cure all. It will take some experimentation to see what cam will be best suited, but you can make some corrective adjustments with adjustable cam gears if cams are not perfect. The cam you posted, is in no way too big if you adjust the cam timing correctly.

However, make sure that your bottom end will handle the higher rpms that a big cam will bring. You will be at 8000 with that cam. Maybe higher. Can your motor handle it? You better have good springs. Do you have good rods? If not, go with a smaller cam. My cam is smaller than that, and I turn an occasional 8000.


BTW, guys that are making big horsepower, not only have big turbos, they have high flowing heads with big cams. However, they have bottom ends that can handle not only the horsepower and torque, but the high rpms.

Combination is everything.

yet again, are you on crack.

do you know anything about turbo cams? because it really doenst sound like it.
What he is currently running is not ridiculously big but that certainly does not mean he needs to go for significantly longer duration, there is a lot of variables when it comes to cam timing with turbocharger sizing and a number of other variables.

not that it matters anyway, turbos are just a 'fix' for what we all really should be doing with our cars. We should be getting high compression pistons and side draft carbs, right?
Hell, If you wanna really go fast you gotta convert to a distributor too

+1

I highly recomend integral cams, they are very very high quality cams. i sent them my flow data for my head and told them my HP and rpm goals, and they sent me a R3 intake .490 lift and 295* duration and R1 exhaust .458 lift and 283* duration. keep in mind this is for a 1.8l solid lifter shim underbucket head with extensive head work. and i will be reving to 9000rpm area

Now that's a cam.