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Cam gear alternatives for '93 240 ?

cookieboy

cookieboy

Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2009
Location
CA
Hi guys, I recently rejoined the Volvo famiy after I got my '90 240 back after a family member that I had given it to years ago had left it abandoned at his dad's driveway. But now I'm hopefully going to be inquiring about a '93 240 for my daughter and we're interested in getting either a B cam or VX3, but since the cam gear from IPD only fits '92 and older, are there any other alternatives or is leaving the cam timed straight up our only option and if so, would it still be any improvement over the M ? Thanks in advance !
 
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Thanks again. On another note, what would be your recommended degree of advancement for an automatic equipped b230f if we go with the B or VX3? Or even a T cam for that matter?
 
cookieboy said:
Thanks again. On another note, what would be your recommended degree of advancement for an automatic equipped b230f if we go with the B or VX3? Or even a T cam for that matter?
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I probably wouldn't advance a T cam. It has a good power band for torque with an automatic already.

Maybe try 2-4 degrees and then go from there for the B or VX3 cams.
 
VX3 cam already has 3 deg of advance built into it. I'd start with all cams "straight up" and then try "1" marking on the cam gear either way.

The cam gears are all degreed with respect to the cam, not the crank. So 1deg on the cam is 2deg at the crank. So if someone is setting up a cam to be 3deg adv using the timing marks on the gear, it's actually at 6deg adv and probably making everything worse.
 
For a stock, automatic equipped car:

T cam, run it with tight clearances(.013"ish) and leave it straight up or even retard it 2-4 degrees indicated on the cam gear for maybe more high end pull(still hardly any, but still good torque).

B cam, run it straight up or advanced 2 degrees with near stock clearances(.016"ish) to maintain a reasonable idle quality.

VX3 cam, as mentioned it's already advanced a bit but I'd run it straight up or maybe even advanced a smidge more with .013-.016" clearances.

Putting a VX3 in my 1987 244 auto made it feel a little doggy after having the T cam in there retarded a couple degrees and with the clearances tighter. I don't know if it was slower, but I do know the T cam was at least faster than the M cam similarly setup in that car at the drag strip.
 
Thanks Kyle ! At the suggestions of the guys on here, I recently got a couple of cam gears from STS for myself and my daughter's newly acquired '91 245 w/AW70 (Thanks 122Power)which will hopefully be getting the T cam installed in the near future. So with the timing retarded 2-4 degrees, it sounds like maybe the car has more grunt than timed straight up?
klr142 said:
For a stock, automatic equipped car:

T cam, run it with tight clearances(.013"ish) and leave it straight up or even retard it 2-4 degrees indicated on the cam gear for maybe more high end pull(still hardly any, but still good torque).

B cam, run it straight up or advanced 2 degrees with near stock clearances(.016"ish) to maintain a reasonable idle quality.

VX3 cam, as mentioned it's already advanced a bit but I'd run it straight up or maybe even advanced a smidge more with .013-.016" clearances.

Putting a VX3 in my 1987 244 auto made it feel a little doggy after having the T cam in there retarded a couple degrees and with the clearances tighter. I don't know if it was slower, but I do know the T cam was at least faster than the M cam similarly setup in that car at the drag strip.
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retarding a cam = shifting the torque/power curve up in the rev range
advancing a cam = shifting the torque/power curve down the rev range.

so, it's a question of where you want the torque to come in strong. Peak power is kind of mute in a daily driver anyway. Being zippy off the line and responsive when overtaking, that is useful.
 
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Janspeed said:
retarding a cam = shifting the torque/power curve up in the rev range
advancing a cam = shifting the torque/power curve down the rev range.

so, it's a question of where you want the torque to come in strong. Peak power is kind of mute in a daily driver anyway. Being zippy off the line and responsive when overtaking, that is useful.
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THIS...

When I first started working on my car before the +T advancing the the cam timing helped things. While the fancy IPD cam gears are nice, the creative man's way is to do it yourself with the stock gear.

6 degrees IIRC my math correctly was just shy of 1/2 a tooth so in my case I just rotated the gear 180 - 1/2 tooth and drilled a new hole and called it a day. You could get a timing gear/distro gear from an older 240 but even after the plus T I never felt the need to change it.
 
Janspeed said:
retarding a cam = shifting the torque/power curve up in the rev range
advancing a cam = shifting the torque/power curve down the rev range.

so, it's a question of where you want the torque to come in strong. Peak power is kind of mute in a daily driver anyway. Being zippy off the line and responsive when overtaking, that is useful.
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This. The T cam is so tiny and makes ?so much? torque, I wanted to widen its usable powerband to help with passing power when the transmission drops down a gear, and just for more peak power. Hence the retardation.
 
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