TLs camshafts

[asuzag]

one of my camshafts decided to snap in the middle and now i'm looking new set of cams for my '97 tls because at least here in Finland new OEM cam costs around 500e ~650$ so i thought that at almost same price i could by all 4 cams for some aftermarket manufacturer.

So i'd like to know which companies makes aftermarket cams for TLs and can i use those with stock engine without changing pistons etc.?

[pmmonster]

Man, for $650 you should just buy a complete engine, pull the cams out and sell the tranny and any other good bits and you would be ahead of the game. Or maybe find a pair of used heads for much less

[cyclecamper]

http://webcamshafts.com/ is the real source for most aftermarket weld-up regrind cams in the US, though there are also other camshaft shops that do it, especially in the UK.

You might find old Vee-Two (Australia) cams or Yosh race cams if you look hard enough, but they're not made anymore.

IMHO the truth is that the conservative TLS cams are really pretty nice for a '97, unless you raise the compression. Remember that the '97 has the really big round straight intake ports, and even at high revs the cyls still fill fine with stock TLS cams, but still has a lot of power at low revs.

You could certainly drop in stock TLR pistons and cams together, but it would change the nature of your hooligan '97 into more of a drag bike. With those '97 ports you might have pretty fierce high-rpm power with aftrmarket cams; might also have even more stumbles at low revs and small-throttle-opening transitions, and on/off/on/off transitions thru turns could get hairy.

[pencon]

I have a Stock Cam 97 and I've ridden a couple of newer TLs and the 97 cams seem a lot more radical than the 98+ Better top end, a little less on the bottom . etc.

[cyclecamper]

It's the stock '97 intake ports that make the difference; bigger, rounder, and straighter. Worse low-rpm on/off throttle transition, more port turbulence at small throttle with small RPM, but much better top end and much bigger hit if you rolll on just right. But I'm going to try to port late-model heads to keep the more modern raised floor and curved port...just remove some material on the sides of the ports keeping them flattened thrut the curve, and removing material near the guide on the port roof.

[BikePilot]

From the reports I've read there isn't really any benefit to be had from cams alone, though cams plus a big bump in compression will net a nice improvement in power. You should be able to find a good used cam though for fairly little money.

good luck!

[The Ring-In]

But I'm going to try to port late-model heads to keep the more modern raised floor and curved port...just remove some material on the sides of the ports keeping them flattened thrut the curve, and removing material near the guide on the port roof.

greg be really careful with this cos i have a set of bench flowed heads. and the metal removal is almost negligible . its just around the valve seats really. Unfortunately I cant send you a pic good enough to let you know what is done. I did post the flow diagrams last year. the dyno figures show no more power for the earlier heads just theat it comes on more aggressively because ther is less in the midrange transition. the earlier heads would work for a forced induction head but only because of the forced induction and not because they are better for the task.
I should post the profiles a gain because there are some differences.
The idea behind port shape is to match the actual flow at a given lift to the potential flow at the given lift. big ports have slower gas flow so are less likely to deliver max flow at lower lifts, seems arse about but its how it works.
Its the capacity of the port to maximise flow at all lifts which gnerates the best power thru out the rev range. big poor flowing ports make good top end power.

[The Ring-In]

How do you know where to remove the metal

this little secret is no real secret at all and is the key to good porting.

A porter uses a tiny tube called a pitot (peetoe) tube connected to a vacuum gauge. while the head is on the flow bench he can probe the pressures in the port with the tip of the tube. by checking the pressures he can determine where to remove metal , high pressure areas and where to add fill, low pressure area.
if the head is producing close to its potential flow at a given lift then maybe no metal removal is required . but adding fill in certain areas may improve the flow pressure relationship and increase gas flow. now increased gas speed has the potential to increase filling beyond the flow figures because the gas has higher inertia and will continue to flow into the cylinder as a result even tho the cylinder may have reached a pressure equilibrium with the port. this is part of the equation which results in an engine having a volumetric effiency of over 100%.
the late model tl heads are almost ideal in their configuration. the valve area / piston area relationship is almost ideal too which is why there is often no power gain to be seen from oversize valves. In fact it could be argued the drop in port gas speed thru the valve offsets any gain in actual gas flow

[Troy]

Originally Posted by asuzag

one of my camshafts decided to snap in the middle and now i'm looking new set of cams for my '97 tls because at least here in Finland new OEM cam costs around 500e ~650$ so i thought that at almost same price i could by all 4 cams for some aftermarket manufacturer.

So i'd like to know which companies makes aftermarket cams for TLs and can i use those with stock engine without changing pistons etc.?

buy used heads from ebay and use cams!you save lots of cash!then spend it on my bling bits!

tervetuloa zonelle!

[The Ring-In]

buy used heads from ebay and use cams!you save lots of cash!then spend it on my bling bits!

This is an old thread so I'm sure the issue is resolved
but for anyone new to this the s and r cams are different and so are the gears . if you change the cams from one to the other you must use the idle gears as well and you can't mix and match