which cam is the intake cam?

[wickedplastikman]

i just bought some used gsr cams for my car. how do i tell which cam is the intake cam and which one is the exhaust cam? how can i tell the two apart? does it even matter? the cams are off a 96 gsr. thanks

[LSfrankie]

the one closest to the intake is the intake came. the one closest to the exhaust manifold is the exhaust cam. if you think about it, it makes sense

[CivicSpoon]

I believe he ment how he can tell the difference between intake and exhaust of the new cams he has, so he can put them in his motor in the correct place.Wow, almost sounds like you were actually trying to help someone...

[LSfrankie]

Hmm solid point. i think the only way to tell is to measure the lobes with a micrometer... intake lobes are slightly larger.

[wickedplastikman]

yeah, thats what i meant. the cams i bought are obviously not in a motor right now. so you are saying that i need to measure them with a micrometer and the bigger one is the intake cam? is there any other way? honda usually makes things simple so i am hoping that they somehow marked them.

[LSfrankie]

I am pretty sure that is the only way... measure the VTEC lobe and the intake is the larger of the two. its a pretty small difference but close to 1mm.

[integralover]

if you look on the cams usually toward the non cam gear side it will have an I for intkae and an E for exhaust.

[LSfrankie]

I had some ITR cams not too long ago and they had no such markings

[integralover]

well my cams are like that. well not sure about the vtec cams then

[LSfrankie]

Ok well if there is no markings to differentiate between the two, measuring is the best alternative

[boosted k20]

just look at the ends of the cams. on one of them u will see a slot at the end. this slot fits onto the shaft of the distributor. this is the intake cam. other one is obviously exhaust cam. cam can only go in one direction in the motor!

[wickedplastikman]

ahh! thanks.