COMP Cams® Valve Timing Tutorial

In an effort to simplify what actually happens inside an engine, COMP Cams® invites you to "take a walk"
inside a typical engine, just like the one you might have in your car. We will discuss valve events, piston
position, overlap and centerlines. Although we can not explain cam design in such a small space, we might
be able to clear up some of the most misunderstood terms and make clearer what actually happens as the
engine goes through its four-stroke cycle. We will graphically illustrate the relationship between all parts of
the engine and try to help you understand how the camshaft affects the power of the engine. Put on your
walking shoes, open your eyes and get ready for a good look inside this engine.

We begin with the piston all the way at the top with
both valves closed. Just a few degrees ago the spark
plug fired and the explosion and the expansion of the
gasses is forcing the piston towards the bottom of the
cylinder. This is the event that actually pushes the
crankshaft around to create the power and is referred
to as the "power stroke" (figure 1). Each "stroke" lasts
one half crankshaft revolution or 180 crankshaft
degrees. Since the camshaft turns at half of the speed
of the crank, the power stroke only sees one fourth of
a turn of the cam, or 90 camshaft degrees.

As we move closer to the bottom of the cylinder, a little before the piston reaches the bottom, the exhaust
valve begins to open. By this time most of the charge has been burned and the cylinder pressure will begin
to push this burnt mixture out into the exhaust port. After the piston passes the true bottom or Bottom Dead
Center, it begins to rise back to the top. Now we have begun the exhaust stroke, another 180° in the cycle
(figure 2). This forces the remainder of the mixture out of the chamber to make room for a fresh, clean
charge of air-fuel mixture. While the piston is moving toward the top of the cylinder, the exhaust valve
quickly opens, goes through maximum lift and begins to close.

Now something quite unique begins to take place. Just before the piston reaches the top, the intake valve
begins to open and the exhaust valve is not yet fully closed. This doesn't sound right, does it? Let's try to
figure out what is happening.

The exhaust stroke of the piston has pushed out just about all of the spent charge and as the piston
approaches the top and the intake valve begins to open slowly, there begins a siphon or "scavenge" effect
in the chamber. The rush of the gases out into the exhaust port will draw in the start of the intake charge.
This is how the engine flushes out all of the used charge. Even some of the new gases escape into the
exhaust. Once the piston passes through Top Dead Center and starts back down, the intake charge is
being pulled in quickly so the exhaust valve must close at precisely the right point after the top to keep any
burnt gas from reentering. This area around Top Dead Center with both valves open is referred to as
"overlap". This is one of the most critical moments in the running cycle, and all points must be positioned
correctly with the Top Dead Center of the piston. We'll look at this much more closely later.

We have now passed through overlap. The exhaust valve has closed just after the piston started down and
the intake valve is opening very quickly. This is called the intake stroke (figure 3), where the engine
"breathes" and fills itself with another charge of fresh air/fuel mixture. The intake valve reaches its maximum
lift at some defined point (usually about 106 degrees) after top dead center. This is called the intake
centerline, which refers to where the cam has been installed in the engine in relation to the crankshaft. This
is commonly called "degreeing". We will talk about this later also.

The piston again goes all the way to the bottom and as it starts up, the intake valve is rushing towards the
seat. The closing point of the intake valve will determine where the cylinder actually begins to build pressure,
as we are now into the compression stroke (figure 4). When the mixture has all been taken in and the valves
are both closed, the piston begins to compress the mixture. This is where the engine can really build some
power. Then, just prior to the top, the spark plug fires and we are ready to start all over again.

The engine cycle we have just observed is typical of all four- stroke engines. There are several things we
have not discussed, such as lift, duration, opening and closing points, overlap, intake centerline and lobe
separation angle. If you will refer to the valve timing diagram when we discuss these terms it might make
things a lot easier to understand.

Most cams are rated by duration at some defined lift point. As slow as the valve opens and closes at the
very beginning and end of its cycle, it would be impossible to find exactly where it begins to move. In the
case illustrated, the rated duration is at .006" tappet lift. In our plot, we use valve lift so we must multiply by
the rocker arm ratio to find this lift. For example: .006" x 1.5 =.009". Instead of the original .006" tappet lift,
we now use .009" valve lift. These opening and closing points are circled so that you can see them. If you
count the number of degrees between these points you will arrive at the advertised duration, in this case
270 degrees of crank- shaft rotation. In this illustration this is the same for both the intake and the exhaust
lobes, thus making this a single pattern cam. Some cam manufacturers rate their cams at .050" lift. If we
again multiply this by the rocker arm ratio, we get .075". We can mark the diagram and read the duration
at .050" lift. This cam shows around 224 degrees, standard for this 270H cam. The lift is very simple to
determine. You can simply read it from the axis going up. This is the lift at the valve as we said earlier.
Sometimes you will hear lift referred to as "lobe lift". This means the lift at the lobe or the valve lift divided
by the rocker arm ratio. In this case, it would be .470" divided by 1.5 or .313" lobe lift. The lift is simply a
straightforward measurement of the rise of the valve or lifter.

We touched on opening and closing points a little earlier,

but now we want to consider them even further. We talked
about when these points occur, and how they are
measured. As you can see in figure 1, the valve begins to
move very slowly then picks up speed as it approaches the
top. It does the same closing, coming down quickly then
slowing to a gentle stop. It's kind of like driving your car. If
you were to go from 0 to 60 mph in a fraction of a second
and stop instantly, you can imagine what that would do to
the car, not to mention the driver. It would be much too
severe for any valve train to endure. You would bend
pushrods, wear out cams, break springs and rockers, and
lose all dynamic design. The cam would not run to the
desired RPM level as you would have all these parts
running into each other. As the valve approaches the seat, you also have to slow it down to keep the valve
train from making any loud noises. If you slam the valve down onto the seat, you can expect some severe
noise and a lot of worn and broken parts. So it is easy to see that you can only accelerate the valve a certain
amount before you get into trouble. This is some- thing COMP Cams® has learned over the years-how far
you can safely push this point.

Looking a bit further at the timing points, the first one we see on the diagram is the exhaust opening point.
We have all noticed the different sounds of performance cams, with the distinct lopes or rough idle. This
occurs when the exhaust valve opens earlier and lets the sound of combustion go out into the exhaust
pipes. It may actually still be burning a little when it passes out of the engine, so this can be a very
pronounced sound.

The next point on the graph is the intake opening. This begins the overlap phase, which is very critical to
vacuum, throttle response, emissions and especially, gas mileage. The amount of overlap, or the area
between the intake opening and the exhaust closing, and where it occurs, is one of the most critical points
in the engine cycle. If the intake valve opens too early, it will push the new charge into the intake manifold.
If it occurs too late, it will lean out the cylinder and greatly hinder the performance of the engine. If the
exhaust valve closes too early it will trap some of the spent gases in the combustion chamber, and if it
closes too late it will over-scavenge the chamber; taking out too much of the charge, again creating an
artificially lean condition. If the overlap phase occurs too early, it will create an overly rich condition in the
exhaust port, severely hurting the gas mileage. So, as you can see, everything about overlap is critical to
the performance of the engine.

The last point in the cycle is the intake closing. This occurs slightly after Bottom Dead Center, and the
quicker it closes, the more cylinder pressure the engine will develop. You have to be very careful, however,
to make sure that you hold the valve open long enough to properly fill the chamber, but close it soon enough
to yield maxi mum cylinder pressure. This is a very tricky point in the cycle of the camshaft.

The last thing we will discuss is the difference between intake centerline and lobe separation angle. These
two terms are often confused. Even though they have very similar names, they are very different and control
different events in the engine. Lobe separation angle is simply what it says. It is the number of degrees
separating the peak lift point of the exhaust lobe and the peak point of the intake lobe. This is sometimes
referred to as the "lobe center" of the cam, but we prefer to call it the lobe separation angle. This can only
be changed when the cam is ground. It makes no difference how you degree the cam in the engine, the
lobe separation angle is ground into the cam. The intake centerline, on the other hand, is the position of the
centerline, or peak lift point, of the intake lobe in relation to top dead center of the piston. This can be
changed by "degreeing" the cam into the engine. Figure 1 shows a normal 270 degree cam. It has a lobe
separation of 110°. We show it installed in the engine 4° advanced, or at 106° intake centerline. The light
grey curves show the same camshaft installed an additional four degrees advanced, or at 102 degrees
intake centerline. You can see how much earlier overlap is taking place and how the intake valve is open a
great deal before the piston starts down. This is usually considered as a way to increase bottom end power,
but as you can see there is much of the charge pushed out the exhaust, making a less efficient engine.
There is a recommended intake centerline installation point on each cam card, and it is important to install
the cam at this point. As far as the mechanics of cam degreeing, COMP Cams® has produced a simple,
comprehensive video (part #190) that will take you step-by-step through the process.

On these pages we have discussed theory but the video will show you how to actually get the job done.
COMP Cams® has put a great deal of effort into the design and engineering of our camshafts. All of these
points were considered in each and every cam listed in this catalog. What we intend to do here is show that
camshaft design is not some "black art", but rather a series of decisions and compromises based on the
exact application of the cam. Only our many years of experience can say whether a certain combination of
lobes will work, so you should trust the judgement of those who have engineered these combinations.

If you have any other questions, call our toll free CAM HELP® line at 1-800-999-0853.

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