Installshield 2
Gothenburg Superiority
I know this is mostly in the 'past'...but installed a unused set recently, and just to touch on some of the problems and what i did about them...
My set also lacked the 'hex' some guys have mentioned, not sure why the 2nd run skipped that step...the 2nd batch of cams did not have the thrust journal size problem, mine all measured out perfectly...and the hex issue wasn't hard to overcome...When i installed the cams, and they were completely clean, i used a craftsman strap wrench and locked it on where the hex should've been...to get the ~45lb/ft of torque on the cam gear bolt; i had no problems...it takes a good bit of cleaning to get the bolt back off if you've run it..as the oil saturates the cams pretty thoroughly, and will just make it slip...but after 10 minutes of cleaning, the removal worked as well as the install...
if you buy twiggy's used...watch out for a few things...My cam gear bolt holes (cast into the cam) were TOO SHALLOW for the stock length cam gear bolts...This caused 2 seperate problems that were a completely pain in the ass...first, it sheared the exhaust cams dowel pin off...as the cam gear came lose in just 10 miles of driving...getting that out was a nightmare, and a machine shop had to weld up a 'pile' on the broken stud surface and twist it out...it CANNOT be drilled, as the pins used on twiggy's are through hardened...the tech burn up 6 different bits try to put a mark on it...
2nd, still not knowing the holes were too shallow...I snapped the cam gear bolt head off when trying to torque a little tighter (figured they came lose the first time because ~45lb/ft wasn't enough)...awesome...had to remove again and drill out the broken stud, but luckily, i did that myself and it only set me back a few hours...
after i hack sawed about 3 threads off the stock cam gear bolts...everything was perfectly fine, and they've held for nearly 1000 miles with no problems...
without adjustable cam gears...'zero'd' NA twiggys will absolutely gut idle vacuum...creating constant off throttle stalling...backing out the AAS screw with help the stalling, but the idle will still be maniacal unless you jump the ecu and raise idle speed...i've set my idle at the factory 750 rpm, with the AAS out about 1.5 turns from where it originally was...haven't stalled since...
cold starts will nearly always launch a pending p0300 code...the 'missing' isn't noticeable to me, but my MP3 computer does not like the rpm bouncing around between 1800 and 1400 rpm for the first 15 seconds or so..I've done a good bit of research on how most OBD-II systems determine a random misfire, and its most likely caused by the 'lope' these make in the cold start open loop mode...it takes about 5 complete cold starts for the ecu to finally light the dash indicator, but they're pending in there from the get go...in my case, it only seems to be cold starts...i can clear all pending codes, start from cold, the code is usually back for the first start...however if i start from cold, clear the pending p0300, but then continue a bunch of warm starts...no pending codes show up...i'm hoping as it gets warmer out and the IAC doesn't jack up the idle speed to 2000 rpm like it does when its 10 degrees out...that i won't have to keep messing with this...
another thing that helped reduce the occurance of the p0300...was the cam gears...i've retarded the intake cam 1 cam degree, and advanced the exhaust 1 degree...to close about 4 degrees of crank overlap...this cut the p0300 frequency in half...if i go another degree or two in both directions, i probably won't see any...and idle quality is greatly increased, albeit not nearly as 'cool' imo...I didn't like what that changed to higher end rpm though, so i stopped 1 degree adjustments for the time being...i don't dislike the slightly less low end, and the more overlap i closed...the less of a screamer it became above 5,000 rpm...
i'm very happy with them after i finally figured out what the trouble was...as far as the debate with these vs. integrals...no real comments, but these are ave a very noticeable increase from JDM ZE intake/MSF exhaust cams...if you see a set for sale, jump on them...
My set also lacked the 'hex' some guys have mentioned, not sure why the 2nd run skipped that step...the 2nd batch of cams did not have the thrust journal size problem, mine all measured out perfectly...and the hex issue wasn't hard to overcome...When i installed the cams, and they were completely clean, i used a craftsman strap wrench and locked it on where the hex should've been...to get the ~45lb/ft of torque on the cam gear bolt; i had no problems...it takes a good bit of cleaning to get the bolt back off if you've run it..as the oil saturates the cams pretty thoroughly, and will just make it slip...but after 10 minutes of cleaning, the removal worked as well as the install...
if you buy twiggy's used...watch out for a few things...My cam gear bolt holes (cast into the cam) were TOO SHALLOW for the stock length cam gear bolts...This caused 2 seperate problems that were a completely pain in the ass...first, it sheared the exhaust cams dowel pin off...as the cam gear came lose in just 10 miles of driving...getting that out was a nightmare, and a machine shop had to weld up a 'pile' on the broken stud surface and twist it out...it CANNOT be drilled, as the pins used on twiggy's are through hardened...the tech burn up 6 different bits try to put a mark on it...
2nd, still not knowing the holes were too shallow...I snapped the cam gear bolt head off when trying to torque a little tighter (figured they came lose the first time because ~45lb/ft wasn't enough)...awesome...had to remove again and drill out the broken stud, but luckily, i did that myself and it only set me back a few hours...
after i hack sawed about 3 threads off the stock cam gear bolts...everything was perfectly fine, and they've held for nearly 1000 miles with no problems...
without adjustable cam gears...'zero'd' NA twiggys will absolutely gut idle vacuum...creating constant off throttle stalling...backing out the AAS screw with help the stalling, but the idle will still be maniacal unless you jump the ecu and raise idle speed...i've set my idle at the factory 750 rpm, with the AAS out about 1.5 turns from where it originally was...haven't stalled since...
cold starts will nearly always launch a pending p0300 code...the 'missing' isn't noticeable to me, but my MP3 computer does not like the rpm bouncing around between 1800 and 1400 rpm for the first 15 seconds or so..I've done a good bit of research on how most OBD-II systems determine a random misfire, and its most likely caused by the 'lope' these make in the cold start open loop mode...it takes about 5 complete cold starts for the ecu to finally light the dash indicator, but they're pending in there from the get go...in my case, it only seems to be cold starts...i can clear all pending codes, start from cold, the code is usually back for the first start...however if i start from cold, clear the pending p0300, but then continue a bunch of warm starts...no pending codes show up...i'm hoping as it gets warmer out and the IAC doesn't jack up the idle speed to 2000 rpm like it does when its 10 degrees out...that i won't have to keep messing with this...
another thing that helped reduce the occurance of the p0300...was the cam gears...i've retarded the intake cam 1 cam degree, and advanced the exhaust 1 degree...to close about 4 degrees of crank overlap...this cut the p0300 frequency in half...if i go another degree or two in both directions, i probably won't see any...and idle quality is greatly increased, albeit not nearly as 'cool' imo...I didn't like what that changed to higher end rpm though, so i stopped 1 degree adjustments for the time being...i don't dislike the slightly less low end, and the more overlap i closed...the less of a screamer it became above 5,000 rpm...
i'm very happy with them after i finally figured out what the trouble was...as far as the debate with these vs. integrals...no real comments, but these are ave a very noticeable increase from JDM ZE intake/MSF exhaust cams...if you see a set for sale, jump on them...
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