Cam Timing after dyno runs

I know everyone has addressed camshaft timing before, but a quick search through the archives and I couldn't find anyone with this specific problem. I just did some dyno runs on my 86 GTi ITB car to play with ignition timing and fuel enrichment. On my best run I saw 98 horsepower at the wheels at 5200 rpm with about 105 lb-ft of torque at about 4100 rpm. Great! Except the rpm value for the HP seems quite low. Could my camshaft timing be off? I have some offset cam keys (Chrysler parts) from the previous owner, so should I be using them? It seems like I want to retard the cam slightly to raise the HP peak rpm. To retard it I shold turn the cam slightly clockwise when looking at the engine from the passeneger side of the car. Does this sound right to those in the know? Lastly, the car idles great when cold but won't idle at all when warm. Is this a related symptom, or do I have another problem (opportunity) to deal with.

Thanks for your help! Oh one more thing, is that a good, bad or mediocre amount of horsepower for a mid-pack ITB Golf?

kevin

Apropos of nothing (I love saying that) and ignoring that it doesn't actually answer your question, it's worth noting here that offset keys may be used "to return camshaft timing to the factory specs," when the timing ends up off due to head milling.

This gets interpreted as "offset keys are allowed" but that isn't really the case.

Kirk

(who hasn't had a rules NERD moment in a long time)

The plot thickens. This morning I looked at the "stock" 8V horsepower and torque curves for a Golf in Raven's book and they are quite similar in shape and peak hp and torque at rpm as are mine from last night's dyno runs. If an 8V engine makes its hp at say 5200-5500 rpm, why the heck are guys running them up to 6500 rpm on the track? Anyway does this imply my cam is right, or should I retard it to keep up with the guys who run 6500 rpm?

About the offset keys, my head was cleaned up slightly to make it flat, so does this imply I would be allowed to use offset keys to return cam timing to stock? Also, when I said the cam should rotate clockwise slightly to retard it, I meant that the camshaft sproket would need to move clockwise whiule the cam stayed in place through use of an offset key to retard it. This is different than retarding the cam, in which case the sproket and cam together would need to move anti-clockwise slightly, if that makes sense.

None of which explains my lack of warm engine idle.

Looking for answers,

Kevin

If I am not mistaken (and of course I may well be....), removing material from the block/head will move your cam timing in the 'right' direction for higher rpm powerband.

IMO it is not a big deal that you make power at 5200 rpm. Just adjust your shift points accordingly and let the others make noise up to 6500.

BTW it sounds like you are running a fuel enrichment device. My experience with these is on a 16v CIS-E, but it gave about 500-600 extra rpm to the power band. Did you do runs with and without, or with different resistance values? Just wondering if it affected your power band much.

Chris

This just in! The idle problem (and no doubt a host of others) was caused by a piece of shop towel that was jammed just ahead of the butterfly valve! So if my car makes 98 hp on half of its throttle opening, will it make 200 hp with all of it!!!! Seriously, I was lucky it didn't do any damage and it could explain the low rpm figures (not enough air getting in). I wish i could take the blame, but I didn't build or install the engine and am just glad to have found it before it did anything serious.

It may not matter, given the above but,
I am running a fuel enrichment system. The difference between the "off" setting and max enrichment was about 1.5 hp or so.


Kevin