GTC Cams anyone have them???

[Zq-8_dawg]

I am looking to do some things to my car and for the 318 4 cylinder motors mods seem pretty limited as compared to some of the cars I have previously owned.

I stumbled across the GTC cams at www.bekkers.com wich claim
"GTC sport cams are designed to increase horse power and torque by 10 to 15 percent throughout the middle and upper RPM ranges, while retaining good idle and low RPM performance" The price for these cams is $470 which seems fair if they give the gains that they claim.

They also have Racing cams but they have a rougher idle and require extensive modifications.

If you have these cams let us know how you like them, if not what do you think about these cams?

[komodo]

$470 seems a bit cheap for a good cam. That site doesn't look very professional... I dunno. For something as important as a cam, I don't think I'd buy anything except a name brand such as schrick.

[Zq-8_dawg]

Don't judge a book by it's cover, that site really doesn't look any different from any other performance site I have been to. They are ground on OEM blanks and use CNC technology and come with a 1 year warranty.

I also found another manafacuter for M44 Cams
www.kentcams.com

[Autotechnica]

I use to know someone here locally who distributed GTC cams. Unfortunately from what I remember they don't make any applications for the E36 318. The GTC cams are only for the 4 cyl M10 motor which were from the 2002 and early model E30 318's.

If you can find something for your car, please let me know as well. GTC is a very well known brand in motorsports. They are famous for building race cams for Mercedes Benz.

komodo9,

Just because you've never heard of GTC doesn't mean they aren't good. It just means you don't have much knowledge about performance car parts except for what you see in magazines or in popular websites. Don't buy into hype! If you start looking into high quality race parts, you'll find that you've never heard of any of those brands either. My ex-mechanic (now retired) use to work for a BMW racing team in Japan. They used GTC cams in their BMW race cars. GTC has been around for decades, way before the Internet even existed. Anyways, Bekkers is a respectable company, they also do a lot of racing.



Bry

[bigred318]

yeah dude i wish those would fit my e36 318is! 480 bucks for cams is such a good deal holy! do some omre reseacch and find some for the m42 engine!

David

[komodo]

Autotechnica, that is true. I just hadn't heard of them before, but I am new to most of this... sorry about that

[Zq-8_dawg]

well that is a no go, they replied back and said that they don't have anything that will fit the m44 application. So I am going to see if Kent Cams can give me pricing info.

[Zq-8_dawg]

Well I just got off the phone with a distributor for kent cams... it appears that I will need to send in my stock cams to be reground or buy new stock cams for them to replace or get cams from a junk yard. Price for the regrinds is $450 + shipping

Problem #1
My car is a daily driver

Problem #2
I was told that they don't add any material to the cam just grind a new profile, so that means valve lift will not increase.

I have Kent cams specs so essentially I could take my cam to a shop that grinds cams and have them do the same thing.


Are there any other places that make cams for the M44 engine?

This is very frusterating that performance parts are so hard to obtain for this engine.

[Autotechnica]

Forget reground cams, you can get that done anywhere. What you want is a cam made from a new OE billet. I'd recommend BMP. However, their prices are not cheap.

Bry

[bigred318]

but the high end power is defintally worth it! not to mention the offset idle! mmmmmmm

David

[Zq-8_dawg]

I guess what I am going to do is find a place locally that will regrind cams and see what becomes of it using Kent's specs, if they are reputable I will find out if they can tweek the specs a little and get me a nice power gain.

BTW are factory cams billet or what material are they made of?

[robbins6103]

I don't know how it is on a 318, but on my 328 you can't just change the cams and call it good, you would also have to get bigger fuel injectors, new valves, valve springs, etc...and on top of all of that I would need the software to support it.

-DR

[Autotechnica]

You would get obvious gains almost immediately afterwards. However, you should have a shop dyno tune your car and provide proper software programming (big $$$). You would also need to tune for proper A/F ratios. An adjustable fuel pressure regulator and an A/F ratio guage is an asset.

The whole point of upgrading your cams is to make the engine suck more air in. Without doing headwork, you're actually straving the engine and the engine will literally run out of breath. If you're not careful, you could make your car significantly slower. If you plan to keep the car relatively stock, find a cam with a small increase in duration and valvelift. Lower duration will give you more low end torque, but less high end. Higher durations will give you more high end at the expensive of low end.

Also, it is cirital to inspect your valvetrain and the crank to make sure they are in good shape. You don't want to put more stress on a high milage engine which shows signs of serious wear.

bry