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VQ35 cam spacer dimensions

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Old 05-22-2012, 12:23 PM
  #41  
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Originally Posted by speedymax99
Stephen, will these spacers make any VQ35 cams a simle "bolt on" for 3.0?
Since VQ35 is variable cam timing, where do these put the timing relative to 3.0?
I don't know if it qualifies the cam swap as a simple bolt on, but it makes it a straightforward assembly operation.

The other question I answered in the previous post. The versatility of the spacers is that you can dial in any amount valve overlap you want by making the angle between the big dowel and the small dowel to the desired spec.

Exhaust timing is unchanged, of course, since the relation between the exhaust cam and the main timing gear remains unchanged.

Last edited by Stephen Max; 05-22-2012 at 12:32 PM.
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Old 05-22-2012, 12:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
Configuration 1 gives the correct orientation of the small dowel and the large dowel.
Thank You!
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Old 05-22-2012, 05:11 PM
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Stephen- do the spacers with 3mm thickness make the intake camshafts' bigger timing gears not able to slide onto the centering shafts? Thanks btw.
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Old 05-22-2012, 06:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
Stephen- do the spacers with 3mm thickness make the intake camshafts' bigger timing gears not able to slide onto the centering shafts? Thanks btw.
They are still able fit over the centering shafts, yes. The length of engagement is reduced by 3 mm, obviously, but there is still plenty of length to engage with the outer timing gear.

Last edited by Stephen Max; 05-22-2012 at 06:51 PM.
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Old 05-22-2012, 06:37 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
They are still able fit over what you call the centering shafts, yes. The length of engagement is reduced by 3 mm, obviously, but there is still plenty of length to engage with the outer timing gear.
Really!? Mine had no length left...and I measured the spacers at only 2.6mm thick. I wonder whats wrong.
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Old 05-22-2012, 07:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
Really!? Mine had no length left...and I measured the spacers at only 2.6mm thick. I wonder whats wrong.
You have the exhaust side secondary timing gear under the main timing gear. The secondaries are different thicknesses, with the intake secondary thinner than the exhaust secondary.
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Old 05-22-2012, 07:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
You have the exhaust side secondary timing gear under the main timing gear. The secondaries are different thicknesses, with the intake secondary thinner than the exhaust secondary.
Is this true of the JWT spacers too? I have those, and just assumed all 4 were the same..
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Old 05-22-2012, 07:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
You have the exhaust side secondary timing gear under the main timing gear. The secondaries are different thicknesses, with the intake secondary thinner than the exhaust secondary.
Holy crap! That's how I removed it from the vehicle though. I also marked the exhaust and intake secondary cam gears...weird. Now I'll have to tear it all apart again.
Thanks man! That was very helpful and I'm glad I asked you and you responded b4 I installed it!
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Old 05-23-2012, 06:03 AM
  #49  
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Originally Posted by MarcL
Is this true of the JWT spacers too? I have those, and just assumed all 4 were the same..
No, the spacers are all the same thickness.
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Old 05-23-2012, 08:49 AM
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Actually, now that I think about it, when I put both secondary gears on the camshafts with the spacers, both the intake and exhaust cams didn't have anymore of the camshaft coming out...this is weird, maybe I have four exhaust secondary gears and that's why it wasn't spaced to begin with.
Here is a few photos of what I am talking about with the 2.6mm camshaft spacers, there is no more of the camshaft sticking out for the primary gears!!:
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Last edited by Maximeltman; 05-23-2012 at 05:33 PM.
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Old 05-23-2012, 06:28 PM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
Actually, now that I think about it, when I put both secondary gears on the camshafts with the spacers, both the intake and exhaust cams didn't have anymore of the camshaft coming out...this is weird, maybe I have four exhaust secondary gears and that's why it wasn't spaced to begin with.
Here is a few photos of what I am talking about with the 2.6mm camshaft spacers, there is no more of the camshaft sticking out for the primary gears!!:

Those are the vq35 secondary timing gears! The spacers are for the vq35 cams and the vq30 timing gears and chains, including secondaries.
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Old 05-23-2012, 06:34 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
Those are the vq35 secondary timing gears! The spacers are for the vq35 cams and the vq30 timing gears and chains, including secondaries.

Oh...
I thought the VQ35 intake gears were all in one. (secondary mated to the primary)..
What should I do? This is how the motor came, btw...
Maybe delete the spacers altogether then?
Thanks.

Last edited by Stephen Max; 05-23-2012 at 07:34 PM.
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Old 05-23-2012, 07:35 PM
  #53  
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
Oh...
I thought the VQ35 intake gears were all in one. (secondary mated to the primary)..
What should I do? This is how the motor came, btw...
Maybe delete the spacers altogether then?
Thanks.
Just to be sure, are you doing a vq35 swap into a 4th gen? If so, then in order to have compatibility between the 4th gen ecu and the cam position sensor, you have to remove the vq35 timing gears and chains, and replace them with the vq30 timing gears and chains. You also have to replace the vq35 timing covers with the vq30 timing covers, and there are a few other things you have to take care of. When you put the vq30 secondary timing gears on the vq35 cams, there is an alignment problem with the water pump and the crank timing gear, which is why you need the spacers. Along with the spacers you will have to either drill new dowel holes in the intake cams (for the reason I gave earlier), or you can get the cam adapters that have the indexing features (shown earlier in this thread) instead of drilling the intake cams. If you need a set of cam adapters with indexing features, I can make you a set. PM me about that.

Btw, I accidentally hit edit instead of quote in your post above, which is why it says I edited it. I apologize for that.
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Old 05-23-2012, 08:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
Just to be sure, are you doing a vq35 swap into a 4th gen?
Yes.
[/QUOTE]If so, then in order to have compatibility between the 4th gen ecu and the cam position sensor, you have to remove the vq35 timing gears and chains, and replace them with the vq30 timing gears and chains.[/QUOTE]
This was a 3.5 prepped for a 4th gen.
[/QUOTE]You also have to replace the vq35 timing covers with the vq30 timing covers[/QUOTE]
Yep, these are 3.0 timing covers!
[/QUOTE]and there are a few other things you have to take care of. When you put the vq30 secondary timing gears on the vq35 cams, there is an alignment problem with the water pump and the crank timing gear, which is why you need the spacers. Along with the spacers you will have to either drill new dowel holes in the intake cams (for the reason I gave earlier), or you can get the cam adapters that have the indexing features (shown earlier in this thread) instead of drilling the intake cams. If you need a set of cam adapters with indexing features, I can make you a set. PM me about that.[/QUOTE]
These are HR cams, and they appear to be very close in timing to the 3.0 cams..I don't think I can drill them or otherwise!
[/QUOTE]Btw, I accidentally hit edit instead of quote in your post above, which is why it says I edited it. I apologize for that.[/QUOTE]
No prob LOL I should apologize to you for the trouble!
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Old 05-23-2012, 08:13 PM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
Yes.
If so, then in order to have compatibility between the 4th gen ecu and the cam position sensor, you have to remove the vq35 timing gears and chains, and replace them with the vq30 timing gears and chains.
This was a 3.5 prepped for a 4th gen.
Hmmm. I confess I have been out of the loop with regards to the latest VQ35 swap procedures. But I have not heard of being able to use the VQ35 secondaries instead of the VQ30 secondaries. Maybe someone else can verify, but that seems to be a mistake on the part of the person doing the prepping. Then again I could be totally wrong.

Last edited by Stephen Max; 05-24-2012 at 05:20 AM.
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Old 05-23-2012, 10:06 PM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by Stephen Max
If so, then in order to have compatibility between the 4th gen ecu and the cam position sensor, you have to remove the vq35 timing gears and chains, and replace them with the vq30 timing gears and chains.
This was a 3.5 prepped for a 4th gen.

Hmmm. I confess I have been out of the loop with regards to the latest VQ35 swap procedures. But I have not heard of being able to use the VQ35 secondaries instead of the VQ30 secondaries. Maybe someone else can verify, but that seems to be a mistake on the part of the person doing the prepping. Then again I could be totally wrong.[/QUOTE]

You have to use the 3.0 secondaries too.
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Old 05-24-2012, 05:25 AM
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Maximeltman, I don't see how it is possible to use the VQ35 secondaries. As you have already pointed out, there is no shaft left to mount the VQ30 primary gear.

How did the motor come to you? Did it have the VQ30 primaries bolted on, or just as you have shown in the pictures?

Fortunately, it is a pretty simple operation to remove the VQ35 secondaries and replace them with the VQ30 parts. Just be sure to do it by the book so you don't mess up cam timing.
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Old 05-24-2012, 05:54 AM
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The motor came as pictured, except without cam spacers. Without the spacers, the primaries had enough camshaft left to slide onto, which was roughly 3mm..
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Old 05-24-2012, 06:58 AM
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
The motor came as pictured, except without cam spacers. Without the spacers, the primaries had enough camshaft left to slide onto, which was roughly 3mm..
Okay, so maybe the intention is to use the VQ35 secondaries without spacers, but it seems to me that you can't do that for some reason. It has been too long since I did a VQ35 conversion. Maybe primary chain alignment between the primary gears and the water pump and crank timing gear is an issue. At any rate, have you talked to the guy who did the prep work about it?
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Old 05-24-2012, 07:31 AM
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^PM sent. I know that without the spacers, the timing gears seemed 2-3mm out of alignment with the crank gear, but the guy that I bought the motor from said it worked fine. But while I have it apart ,again, I want to be sure it's correct!
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Old 05-24-2012, 09:55 AM
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Originally Posted by Maximeltman
^PM sent. I know that without the spacers, the timing gears seemed 2-3mm out of alignment with the crank gear, but the guy that I bought the motor from said it worked fine. But while I have it apart ,again, I want to be sure it's correct!

It may work fine for a while, but a misaligned roller chain will wear faster. The question then becomes, how long until you need to replace the chain?
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Old 05-24-2012, 01:02 PM
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I hope to see this VQ35 secondary thing cleared up, because I read in one of the writeups that they could be used (along with the secondary tensioners), but just this week when I converted my 4th engine, I saw no way to do that. I thought I was missing something! Did not matter, because I still had my VQ30 timing components.
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Old 05-24-2012, 09:39 PM
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I'm pretty sure in the other write-ups it says that you could use the vq35 secondary timing chain TENSIONERS, not the cam gears etc...
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Old 05-25-2012, 05:58 AM
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VQ30 chain is too wide for the VQ35 tensioners.
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Old 05-25-2012, 08:50 AM
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Wonder if the 3.0/3.5 tensioners share the same piston sizes? If so, just swap the 3.0 piston into the 3.5 tensioner?
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Old 05-25-2012, 09:01 AM
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I think at that point it is irrelevant. either way, you need 3.0 tensioner. The engine I am building now has all of the 3.0 timing components. it seems to be the easiest thing to do.

Because I don't have a 3.0 engine (heads) to reference, I am still confused about the extra oil passage that is on the 3.5 but not the 3.0. Best I can tell, that oil feed on the 3.5 is JUST for the variable intake timing, so it is not needed with the 3.0 timing setup (although the oil passes through the secondary tensioner, it does not seem to feed them). Where I get confused is the 3.0 tensioner have the same "pass through" holes on them, but why would they be there at all when the 3.0 does not have the variable cams?
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Old 01-02-2013, 08:36 AM
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Prepping my rebuild 3.5L engine now.. It has a set of JWT cams in it (3.5L), and I was trying to make sure I set the timing properly.

Based on drawings of the cam lobes of the 3.0L, as compared to the 3.5L, it would seem that the intake cams need to be drilled almost exactly where the small hole is on the intake cams. (One is off by 3.1deg, the other is 2.75). Is that 3 degrees all that critical? Has anyone tried to just put a new timing mark on the gears 180deg from the original? I guess that may not work because of the 3.0L cam sensor... (I think I just answered my own question).

What is interesting about the drawings, One of the exhaust cam's seems to be 6 degrees off (between the 3.0 and 3.5) yet, I have not seen anyone talk about re-drilling the exhaust cam.
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Old 01-03-2013, 09:16 PM
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Since cam timing is referenced in crank degrees and the crank spins 2x the cam speed, that 3* turns into a 6* crank timing advance. I say advance since googling pics of the intake cam end looks like it's a shorter distance between the holes in the clockwise direction if the larger hole is at the 12 o'clock position.

I would have to search here for what 180* from the larger hole is to begin with timing wise.
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Old 02-21-2015, 02:28 PM
  #69  
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OK, so I'm reviving an ancient thread, but I have a few questions. First, the intake spacers/adapters are different than the exhaust ones, correct? If so, which ones are which in the previously posted CAD drawings? I really would like a few more specifics on this, especially since I haven't been able to get ahold of Stephen Max just to purchase some.
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Old 02-22-2015, 08:03 PM
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The CAD drawings pictured are for the intake cams to relocate the dowels, the exhaust cams will only need a spacer (no dowel relocation needed) with a single hole for the dowel.
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Old 02-23-2015, 06:17 AM
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@ schmelly fart

OK, so the CAD drawing posted by sanjuro is the one I want? And the spacers that JWT sells would work for the exhaust cams? Thanks for your help!

http://jimwolftechnology.com/custome...asp?PartID=491
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Old 02-23-2015, 11:59 AM
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That is correct.
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Old 02-28-2015, 06:25 AM
  #73  
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I am removing my VQ30 parts right now.. Looking to sell them, if anyone is interested.. All of the VQ30 parts needed for the conversion, along with the cam spacers.
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