I have just been informed that tomei no longer make the 10 hole vernier cam gears for FJ20. These were expensive ($600 AUD a set I was told) but I bought a set a few years back and made up a jig so I could copy them for my cars. I still haven't used the original tomei gears, but still have the jig, and can therefore make up sets for interested parties on an exchange basis for around a third of their original price - including return postage in Australia. Overseas people will have to pay a little extra for postage depending on where you are.

The tomei copies look and perform just like the real thing (provided your exchange gears are in reasonable condition of course) These copies are all I've ever run in my cars. They have 10 holes in each gear and change cam timing in 2 crank degree increments for each hole. If you are doing a build or simply want more performance out of your stock motor and need a set of vernier cam gears made, drop me a line at ben@digsfish.com. I usually can have them back in your hands within a couple of days of recieving them.

These are worth having, Ben did a good job on doing mine.

i'll second that...

Bump - plenty of interest from locals and people overseas - I attach a pic for those interested to see what the finished product looks like. They are round of course, even if the thumbnail makes them look oval !

pic here

I would be interested in a set of these. What is involved in the indexing of the cams to receive these, or is that needed?(my head is in the shop right now for a rego, or I'd have a look myself). Anyway I will drop you an email.

Just responding to a few e-mails where a common question is, how much performance are these things worth ?

The benefits of the gears is that you can set up precisely for each different combo. For example, with a restrictive turbine wheel (e.g. stock FJ20 turbo) with or without an upgraded compressor wheel, you can get into exhaust backpressure issues. If exhaust back pressure is very high, minimising valve overlap by retarding inlet cam timing can boost performance - doing this for my road car (all stock FJ20ET) increased terminal MPH at the drags by 3 mph, showing at least 15 wheel hp improvement, no other changes. Of course, if you have a late model turbo which is not restrictive in the exhaust, you can run more inlet cam advance, or retard the exhaust, or both, to increase valve overlap to pick up midrange and/or topend hp. Usually 2 to 4 deg advance on the inlet and 4 to 6 degrees retard on the exhaust gets you good gains if the engine can breathe freely.

of course, anyone with aftermarket cams should always degree them in, as they may be welded/ground on a different centre to the stock cams. I degree mine on the engine stand using a dial gauge on the lifter for #1 cylinder and a degree wheel accurately mounted on the crank. Turn the engine, read the dial gauge, and measure valve lift vs engine degrees rotation. I especially note the cam centerline and mark that on the crank pulley too. Once the engine is built, you can then move the cams around in the car, without having to put the degree wheel back on. You can do this ion the dyno to work out what the engine wants, but I tend to do it at the drags, make a change, then see how it runs, as its cheaper that way.

bump

Getting a set of these, thanks Ben.

WOW!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the gears Ben. I bet Tomei cant even see the difference between theirs and yours. Nothing less than I expected from someone of your calibre. Thanks again, playtime now with unbreakable and non-slipping gears (unlike slotted)

told you they were the goods

still making the adj cam gears?

Email him at ben@digsfish.com. He still makes them to the best of my knowledge. So worth it and for its price, probably the best mod you can do.

seb,

sell me your old ET cam gears if ya still got em...

pretty pretty please........ :D

Still making these - if interested e-mail ben@digsfish.com

one common question is whether you can use gears from NA cars for this modification , even if the project is for a turbo car. The answer is yes- the tomei gears allow adjustments in +-2 crankshaft degrees, you're adjusting the cams for best performance, so you have to degree the cams in anyway - in which case it doesn't matter whether you start at the FJ20 E or FJ20 ET timing marks, you will be changing the timing anyway, just the multihole copies of the Tomei gears allow you to do this in an accurate and bulletproof way.

bump,went down a long way that time

still making them everyone, will swap a set for some jack shaft bushes ....

hi ben i have some bushes give me a call on 0409390351

Are the bushes new, used, original or manufactured.

Hi all we have done is to slot the dowel hole and do the bolt up tight .the only real load on it is at start up. This motor is in a rally car which is always at about 8000rpm and it has never moved .