16v Springs & Valves

[DrewP]

Or if you meant wear on the cam lobes or the top face of the lifter, I have never seen a 16V cam or lifter with pretty much any detectable (visual) wear. Saab hardened the absolute crap out of all the valvetrain parts.

[Freecirc]

Ok, Thanks guys, that was kinda what I was looking for.
I have a plan now. I will check the square of my springs, and reuse them with the T5 Intake Valves, and port and polish my 2.1L head. I have had 2.1L cam-caps and cams score badly due to *slightly* low oil pressure in some of my motors, and I want to mitigate any of that on the next build.

I apologize if this has already been asked, but I seem to be in good company here!
-Could anyone make a suggestion as to the Cams to use? In my last B202 build, I used the 2.1L head, but kept the Cams from that engine. Should I use the turbo B202 cams instead, or some combination of the two?

[DrewP]

From my butt-dyno testing, on my modified '85 16V turbo, I could not tell any difference between a set of turbo cams, turbo inlet cam with '85 turbo exhaust cam, and 2.1L cams.

I have 2.1L cams in my car now, it makes good power and torque.

The better combo would be to use T5 cams, but you'd need adjustable sprockets to time them correctly. I have a set and never got around to trying it because my car makes plenty of power to blow the gearbox right now anyway. So I stopped looking for another 5-10 hp where I could find it.

[Freecirc]

@Drew:
Adjustible Cam Spockets, huh?
I had a OEM Cam sprocket spin on me once, and you know that ended up badly with bent valves.
How strong are these adjustable Cam Sprockets, and where can they be found\purchased?

[DrewP]

My brother made a batch a year or two ago but they have since all been sold. I think maybe Speedparts does them? You may have to hunt around on Swedish parts sites, I'm sure there are places overseas who have them if you really want to go that route.

I've had the factory cast sprockets shear the tooth off and bend valves also.

I'm still not convinced that there would be much difference unless you're really trying to wring every horse out of the engine that you can.

[99Super]

I have a set and never got around to trying it because my car makes plenty of power to blow the gearbox right now anyway. So I stopped looking for another 5-10 hp where I could find it.

[hutch]

So probably stupid question but because I could foresee a T5/T7 head swap in the future, is the other option to just run it with b202 cams and sprockets and advance/retard the cam gears by a tooth or two to get the timing close to where it should be?

[DrewP]

Yup.

[Freecirc]

Good Info everyone, Thanks very much.
I had a great amount of power from my last rebuild/tune with just LH 2.2 and a 2.1L head, so I am super excited about the 2.1L head with T5 valves, and T5 engine management!

[Luke]

So probably stupid question but because I could foresee a T5/T7 head swap in the future, is the other option to just run it with b202 cams and sprockets and advance/retard the cam gears by a tooth or two to get the timing close to where it should be?

A full tooth is a huge jump, I can't imagine that working well.
FWIW I was using a T5 head with B202 cams set with standard timing for many years and the engine ran great and made gobs of power.

[Crazyswede]

Good Info everyone, Thanks very much.
I had a great amount of power from my last rebuild/tune with just LH 2.2 and a 2.1L head, so I am super excited about the 2.1L head with T5 valves, and T5 engine management!

You would be a lot better off to run the T5 head. The head flows much more efficiently compared to the earlier heads and you will get better performance out of stock unit. You will need to modify the timing cover and figure out the intake.

[Jordan]

The amount of work to run a t5 head should not be minimized. Yes it flows significantly better, but it is also a ton of work to get the b202 intake fitted as well as all the other details.

[Freecirc]

The amount of work to run a t5 head should not be minimized. Yes it flows significantly better, but it is also a ton of work to get the b202 intake fitted as well as all the other details.

-And that is why I am going to do this with a 2.1L head. I know that the performance gains are much better, but I am also planning to port and polish the 2.1L head ports and gasket match as much as I can, and I am rather squeamish about buying more parts when I already have the 2.1L head in my garage. Also, I don't want to kill the brand new tranny rebuild that I just finished! HA!