ive got a line on a stock grind D cam on tb. it appears to be similar to the k in duration, but with slightly less lift (11.2mm vs 11.94mm)

specs from here

http://www.geocities.com/iadr1/b21.23cam.page.jump.html

am I correct in believing this?

anybody experienced with this cam?

Why would you want less lift? I'm going to have a K cam coming out of the B23E one day soon if you're interested.

I've got a couple Ds. It is an ITB legal cam for a 240.


It comes in a B21E (and whatever early AQ motor is a re-badged B21E). It produces the same shape powerband on a B21 as a K or H cam on a B23 is the idea, which I have experienced. Works great in a flat top piston B21F with a slight recurve of the ignition dist and 1976 style (B21E) fuel dist, essentially cloning a B21E. Other than being ITB legal and working nice in a flat top piston B21, it really is not very note worthy or a cam that would be a natural choice for much anything else IMO.

It is wilder than an A and milder than a K.

So, in mild to wild in my experience on a SOHC you have:
L, M, T, A, B, D, K, V, H


In a turbo I use T, A or V.

In N/A I like K and H...and bone stock don't care gas mileage machine daily beater M or L or T or whatever garbage comes in it.

If I wanted a DD turbo car and an OE volvo cam (I like the OE cams in their strangeness), I'd run a T or A, both of which work real nice. In a wilder turbo car, a V works really really nice, especially in a 2.3 or bigger. It is real fun in a B21, but it has not much for low end. Similar to a K for the most part, but less overlap and plays nicer in the midrange or down low. The K works as a cheap turbo cam, but you really need some better breathing of the motor internally and externally from stock to need it, especially at calgary elevation. K in a stockish B21FT at sea level is drivable in a stick shift car with some flow improvements, but not really torquey and fun or super smooth. In Calgary it would be fun on the straights, but I really would dislike driving it I think at 3-4000ft.



On a turbo car what you really need is flow imo. And the stock exhaust, manifolding, intercooler, head and turbo compressor and wastegate housing really leave a lot on the table before the cam. Can you make more power with a bigger cam? Of course! Can you make nicer to use power with a bigger cam without doing some improvements to all of the above? I don't think so given how much improvement there is to be had with what comes on a stock volvo turbo. Once you fix everything but the head, you can put a bigger cam in it, but you really can't cram a whole ton more air through the stock head (though a pulse pair exhaust header helps a lot). The T in my other car that I did my best with all of that stuff on the cheap pulled right to 6000 without skipping a beat or falling off...at calgary elevation I'd use a T or A in a DD street car.

Agreed 100%. In an LH car there really is no 2 ways about it - fix the flow issues and a T will bounce you off the rev limiter before you feel anything fall off. Don't fix the flow issues and all you're doing when putting in a big cam is killing low end without much gain in top end.

What are you up to mister?
I've got a v-cam i've been wanting to put in the 940 but not until i figure out why it's always pulling timing out of the mid-range, which it's done since i bought it.

hmm...my post seems to have been eaten. Oh well, have to get on with the day.

I'm doing some porting on my spare 405 and have an RSI NA cam and some bigger valves going in as soon as I can get around to this project.

Which post, James - the one right above mine?

nope, right after mine. he posted about his car that put down 205whp with a T cam and a whole bunch of other interesting tidbits.

Huh. Stupid somethingorotherthatkeepseatingposts.

Yeah, I had a longish post that showed up and then I wanted to go back and fix a basic spelling error and next thing it disappears. I wonder if my browser and the server clock get mixed up somehow and it glitches out and only gets the edit request, so if I cut and paste it out to fix it it will disappear?


Oh well. Yes, I did make 205 whp at 5100 and 272 ftlbs of torque on a T-cam B21FT automatic. I'm not particularly proud of it or anything, it took a fair bit of boost and wasn't fully sorted at the time, but I also didn't pick up much by changing the cam later, but couldn't prove it for sure.

Only power increasing mods were:
ATP style gate, 3" straight through exhaust with lots of mufflers and S-pipe, cooler coolant thermostat in summer, shimmed line pressure, recurved ignition dist, late model intake manifold if that counts, and ported somewhat shaved original rebuilt 398 head with an MLS HG bringing the SCR up to ~8.5:1 with Avalanche indexable gear to set the cam timing back as close to stock as possible...I'd like to weld in the unused holes and face it off again so it looks stock. Boost was 17-19psi.

All else stock 240TIC.

I did do a lot of little reliability modifications and fussing, but no other all out power increasing modifications were done. Stage 0 is definitely worth a bit and often overlooked.
Of the reliability mods that are borderline performance mods (maybe??? *shrug*):
740T in-tank pump, redone fuel pump relay, new benz style chassis pump and lots of other little stage 0 things I'm probably forgetting. From past experience, you really need things to be pretty sturdy to run 97psi line pressure reliably and actually have it help and not hurt. The original chassis pump finally bit it at 230something K miles at the beginning of the summer. The car has closer to 260 on it, so it was driven a ton and I put a new pump in it as a stability thing for driving it...everywhere by everyone...I'd loan it to most anyone without worry.

I put the V-cam in the same car for fun/sake of science (I've modded zero automatic cars before this) and gained little on the top end and absolutely murdered how it drove. The car was 3100lbs with me in it (stripper non-A/C 244DL shell with turbo motor aka cop car).

On other 240Ts I've modded with K-jet B21FTs where I have done more extensive flow related modifications the V-cam was very welcome and it was fun to spin them up to 7000 and lots of boost. On LH-jet 2.3L cars you can put the V in there, but you will really really hate the rev limiter and love how a lighter car with a manual gearbox drives with it. With an automagic I'd stick with a T or at most A if it is a DD that isn't 100% highway hauler.

The T is a decent cam that people often shun. Volvo never put anything wilder than an A in the non emissions turbo cars even, and those had more SCR and were 2.3L, so they ought to have a powerband pretty close to a T in our cars. It isn't down there in the bowels of M and L-cams, which really are awful where everybody else got X, A, D, K, V and H for N/A. T-cam is even an upgrade in an N/A car to be honest I think and gives stupid amounts of around town torque in an N/A auto beater. Many on t-brix seem to be interested in just cramming as much through a poor suffering motor as possible. Lots and lots of talk of silly 15G turbos, big cams all on LH in cars with less than decent gearing. When I went to a larger compressor and turbine housing with taller gears I wound up with a car that was much better to drive on the street and used everything LH could really give it, especially with the stock rev limit.

well thats all I needed to know.

its $25 fyi. so its worth just trying.

Craig im interested in that K when you pull it. just let me know.

and this D may end up in a flat top b21f with some other goodies

ive got the T in now, and a B sitting around. I figure its an adventure for the price...