Alrighty then boys and girls. I finally have the engine back in the car. I have done a major rebuild. I took lots of pictures and I hope to have a web site up and running real soon. Now that I have little time to think about things I thought I would let every one in on some thing I have run into during my engine build. Regarding the TA 212 cam, Which I think is a good cam, You ABSOLUTLY MUST degree it when you put it in your engine. I had run the 212 in my engine all this year with it 4 deg. advanced on the crank gear with a stock block and 8.5/1 compression. I thought it ran pretty well after I spent a thousand dollars redoing heads, new carb., new torque converter, and new intake. I ran a best time of 15.60 at 92.24 mph in sothern California with every thing in the car including the spare tire, my tools, jack, and whatever else was in the car. What I Discovered. When I rebuilt the engine this month I decided not to spare any time or money that I could afford to make sure this engine runs the best that it possibly can. I decided to have the cam degreed so it would run a 106 deg. centerline giving it 4 deg. of advance. (As you all know from reading your cam cards it has a 110 deg. centerline.) I purchased the 9 key way timing set from TA and took the short block back to the machine shop to have the cam dialed in. We set up the timing set 2 deg. advanced and checked the centerline at 50 thou. To my surprise and amazement we came up with a 116 deg. centerline. THATS 6 DEG. RETARDED! If I had just thrown the cam in and put 4 deg. of advance on the crank I would have 2 deg. retard in the cam. Can you say SLUG! I can't amagine how dissapointed I would be with the engine. Now don't get me wrong. I think that TA Performance has great products or I wouldn't have just spent close to $1200. dollars with them buying all the internal engine parts that went into my engine. Any one can make a mistake. Mike at TA recommends that every cam be degreed. I can't agree with him more. I'm not saying that every one of you with a 212 cam should pull off your timing cover and degree it if you didn't when you installed it. But that's exactly what I'm saying if you want the most performance out of your engine. Would my engine run with 13 deg. of timing in the cam? Sure it would. Would I make good power at lower rpm. No way. It's just some thing to think about.
Jason, If your numbers are right, 115' intake center line would have the cam in 5' retard. The cam appears to have been ground 7' retarded if your numbers are correct. Installing the timing set on the 8' advance key would give you 1' advance. Hope you are using the timing set correctly. If we have talked on the phone in the past I'm not placing you, but please feel free to give me a call tomorrow. And yes, all cams should be degreed for accurate installation. Mike Tomaszewski TA Performance Products Inc.
Hey Mike:grin: Yea sorry about the numbers. I was thinking on my way in to work this morning that I had made a mistake on saying the cam was advanced. with the cam installed straight up it had a 116 deg. centerline. That would make it 6 deg. RETARDED not advanced like I said earlier in my previous post. What I had to do was advance the cam gear 1 tooth which turned out to be about 19 deg. (go figureo No: ) which put me at a 97 deg. center. Then I retarded the crank gear 8 deg. which brought me back to a 105 deg. center. at 50 thou.. I think that should be just about right since I believe I will get about 1 deg. of stretch in the chain which will put me dead on 106 center with 4 deg. of advance with in a couple of days of driving. Sounds good in theory any way. Mike just to remind you I did talk to you on the phone several times. How can any one forget Jason from Salt Lake:laugh: I really appreciate all the help and advice you guys at TA have given me. I especially want to thank DAVE. He really has been a great help to me. I look forward to coming and seeing all of you down there towards the end of next month.
