Great read indeed Dan! :bigtu:

hell he can take the internal combustion engine design class if it's still offered. our textbook was the bosch bible.

Y8s, that class does sound more applicable. While I've heard a few of the Bosch books referred to as a bible, which one in particular are you talking about?

It is *crystal* clear you have never met our good friend Hustler. :hustler:

;)

I got your 3-gauge pod in this weekend, Bill. Looks perfect. :cool:

doh, my bad. it wasn't the bosch bible, it was heywood's internal combustion engine fundamentals.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA180_.jpg

well i know HKS makes a set of cams for the 1.6 in a 256 and 265 duration, and i know a couple people running 256 HKS cams on their evo's....it has a nice agressive rumble to it,but thats a different car and motor

in other words maybe a 256 would be good for duration?

Bill, what about offering 2 options for cams. Let's say one for a '99 head with a "standard" port&polish and the oversized valves, optimized for a standard flow that one might see with this combo on a '99 head (I say '99 because I assume anyone dropping the coin on a setup like this will be applying the parts to the best head available), and another cam that's blank, ready for a cam shop to install the valves, flow-test the head, and then grind the cam to the user's specs.

Who makes cam blanks for the Miata?

I know we at Jesel can, but they'd be expensive.

Tim, how expensive? i have been trying to get an idea what to expect once I get in the head. Someone please give me an idea. (a realistic one)

Well you know what they say,
"If you have to ask, then..."

This of course isn't anything official, but based off some recent OHC cams we've done:

One time engineering/programming: ~$250 per cam (I think both intake and exhaust cams are the same, in terms of cam cores)

After that each cam is around $400. This is just for a cam core; for most cam materials, you'd need to copper plate it, rough grind the lobes, heat treat the cam, then final grind the lobes.

I hear ya Tim...you are correct, but we can all still play the lottery and hope, lol
The head is last on my list and I have really not done a lot of reasearch on optimum components to use. I will more than likely source a 99-00 head and have it built by the same guy who is doing my machining on the block, he is good. I am getting to this prematurely, but I'd still kind of like to know what's waiting for me, curiosity killed the cat.
So you are somewhere in the $800 range for properly done cams to your builders spec, right?

Also, doesn't mazcomp sell heat treated blank? I though I read something about that...
Thanks Tim

If Mazcomp sells blanks then that's where to go for them. Because with us you'd be at $800+$250=$1025 guestimate for 2 cam blanks that aren't even coppered or heat treated yet, let alone ground to specs. Most of the cores we do end up costing the customer thousands (we just do the initial machine work, no heat treat or lobe grinding). It's overkill for street cars or anyone using "standard" heads. Now if you were to build a billet head from scratch and position the valves/journals/bearings in a different/better spot, we can make the one-off tool-steel cam core.

Damn, I missread your post then, my bad.
It makes sense though, overkill for OE heads I'm sure, no need to reinvent the wheel I guess.

Comp does offer cam blanks

Interesting plans.

Bill - I already have a built head, but with stock cams. I'd be more than happy to give you before and after feedback on the cams if you are interested...

Matt, is it a 99-00 head by any chance?

its a VVT head with all the VVT stuff removed.

Even with the VVT removed, I don't see how you could (at least "easily") run a pre VVT intake cam. Exh cam, not a problem.

sooo, about those turbo cams....

I'm still educating myself about cams, so no ETA at this point.

Please feel free to barrage me with tech articles.

Bill@MiataRoadster.com