can you have the cams off from the crank, but at the same time, equal to each other and have the motor run smooth but just not as powerful as it could be??

 

Are you suggesting this as something you want to do? Or do you suspect your cam timing is off? In the 2 hours since you posted, you could have taken the valve cover off & found out FOR SURE whether your cams are timed properly.

Sorry to rant (well, maybe not) but whenever someone starts a thread about this, I wonder why they don't just go & check their cam timing. It's not difficult.

 

I don't think he's asking if his timing is off... he's just asking a hypothetical question. Hence the title "theory."

 

I think this my friend, is a TOS. I dont expect to bash yours or any other person's thread so why are you gonna bash mine. I asked a simple question and you did not answer it. Why did you not answer it?? One of two things either you do not know the answer but you want your post count to rise, or you are trying to say that this subject has already been covered. Ok if you think it has been covered, do a search. Anyhow now that I got that done with, basically the reason why I am asking is because I have a b-series (LS) in a 5th gen coupe. I bored the block over and put eagle rods and je pistons in it. It does not seem like it is pulling correctly up top and it also has very tiny, hardly noticable jitters while cruising at 3k to 3500 rpm. I was wondering just out of the curiosity of knowing, whether you timing can be off by a tooth, but your cams actually be lined up with each other(in other words your cams be off by a tooth from your crank) and the motor still run fine, but just not perform as well as it could?? Now Blake, if this is clear enough for you please tell me, and you should not rant about a question that is logical.

 

Sorry, I was over-reacting to threads where the guy wants this forum to tell him whether he's got his timing belt on right, but he doesn't want to actually take off his valve cover & look.

If a DOHC engine has both cams off the same direction, same amount (say 1 tooth); its just like an SOHC engine being off 1 tooth. That's not very far off, performance will be degraded, but it can still run.

Normally you would advance or retard your cams to move the power peak up or down in revs. Not necessarily as far as one whole tooth, but you'll need adjustable cam sprockets to play with adjustments smaller than one tooth. So I think it can act just like you're saying.

My only first-hand experience was on a '82 VW (SOHC) that skipped a couple teeth. The camshaft was off maybe 3 teeth. The engine idled quite nicely, but it ran out of breath by 2000 rpm. Even with the clutch disengaged I couldn't rev it over about 2500. In other words, it really sucked, but that was more than 1 tooth.

ps...
I don't think I would have made such a wise-ass answer if your first post had that kind of detail. But I still think if you even suspect your cam timing is off, you're better off re-checking it instead of asking here. There are other things that can also cause the trouble you describe, & your first thing should be to verify your cam timing to rule it out as a possibility.

 

I can tell you first hand that it's very possible. And based on my butt dyno I think my car ran better with it that way. (I need tuning desperatly) There was a small amount of low end power deminished, but the higher R's were amazing. But I guess that really depends on which way you are off. And if it's both cams or just one.