Cams Vs Dyna Ignition

[Anonymous]

I have a GSX1100 which I took out to 1170cc last winter. It also has a little head work done on it.
As detailed in the previous post I am also fitting 38mm carbs.
However this winters budget leaves me with enough money to replace the stock cams or ignition, but not both :roll:
I use the bike for fun on the road and the odd track day!
Which mod. will give me the most useable bhp/?? spent?
Any one with any dyno graphs to illustrate these cahnges would be great.
Also I live in the UK, where we pay far too many ?? for this sort of stuff. Can anyone recomend suppliers who will ship to the UK?
Thanks again for any help offered

[Anonymous]

Did you say that you already have a performance exhaust on the bike???

[Anonymous]

the cams will give you alot more hp than the ignition 8) 8) ozman

[Dink]

For reliable streetable horsepower. get the stock cams dialled in first,this requires only adjustable cam sprockets and some time: and is highly recommended as Suzuki were notorious for the cam timing being out by upto 15 degrees either way. then to add to reliability add the dyna ignition and have your electrics gone through by an auto electrician. And obviously make certain your jetting is right as well as carb balance.
Remembering you will never know how well any mod is gonna work until you know how well the bike can go just by setting it up correctly, from there you then have a good base to judge any further mods.
Dink

[Paul]

Cams will give you more power than a good ignition system, BUT as Dink says if your ignition is suspect you will lose any gains you may have made! In other words get it running really well first, then do the next mod.
A lot of stateside companies will ship here to UK. From my own experience take the $ price, double it, the change the $ sign to ?, and you will have what a UK dealer will charge you!
Try Star Racing, Orient Express, etc for prices on cams. Don't forget in the States they call the GSX a GS - I know, confusing! Just make sure you tell the dealer that it is a 16 valve head. It is often the postage (& the dealers packing charges!) which cripples the prices when they get here to UK.
Where-abouts are you in UK?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the info.
Answers to some of the questions are;
Yes I have a 4/2/1 exhaust with a Mocron race can on it. I made the system from an old GSX exhaust plus a few bits of GSXR I had in the garage.
I live near Southampton.
Electrical system on the bike is good, I'm an electronic engineer and re-loomed the bike lst winter.
The bike currently puts out 105BHP part of my enjoyment of doing this work is seeing that figure go up with each visit to the dyno!

I understood gains could be made by dialing in the stock cams. But I had no idea they were sometimes 15degs out. Is there any reason why I can't file out the current bam gears to make them "slotted." This must be cheaper than buying slotted ones.

Thanks for the replies so far - I had assumed that because the current ignition is very crude, machanical advance! There would be much to gain by fitting a Dyna 2000 kit, but from what has been said so far looks like I am wrong.

[Anonymous]

You can file your cam gears out, yes. There are really 2 reasons that I can think of not to do this.

1) They are cast and relatively weak. If you buy the slotted ones they will be forged - much stronger and ligher.

2) If you decide to upgrade cams, then you will need the slotted gears anyway.

Make that 3 - they are about $50 U.S. for the pair - not a bad price.

[first timer]

i have a 550 and finding forged sloted gears for that will be next to imposable. can just take my oem cam gears to get slotted at a machine shop? or are they to brittel?

ryan

[Paul]

You can file your cam gears out, yes. There are really 2 reasons that I can think of not to do this.

1) They are cast and relatively weak. If you buy the slotted ones they will be forged - much stronger and ligher..

? Not cast - any weight difference would be negligable

2) If you decide to upgrade cams, then you will need the slotted gears anyway..

Why? Only reason to have slotted cams is to "degree in" cams

Make that 3 - they are about $50 U.S. for the pair - not a bad price.

Re my comment about prices in UK

I raced a GS1000 for about 5 years, I only ever used stock Suzuki Cam gears(sprockets) which I slotted myself. As a matter of fact I only used the one set of sprockets. I was using .490 lift cams, the valves kissed the pistons more than once, but the one thing that never got damaged were the sprockets. Mind you it is hard work filing out that slot, it is better to get it milled out (more accurate too)

[Anonymous]

Swanny wrote:
1) They are cast and relatively weak. If you buy the slotted ones they will be forged - much stronger and ligher..

? Not cast - any weight difference would be negligable

The forged slotted gears will have weight reduction holes in them - so, yes there is a weight reduction. They are manufactured for racers - people who value low mass parts.

Swanny wrote:
2) If you decide to upgrade cams, then you will need the slotted gears anyway..

Why? Only reason to have slotted cams is to "degree in" cams

Precisely - ALL aftermarket cams should be degreed in. I don't understand your opposition to what I said.

Swanny wrote:
Make that 3 - they are about $50 U.S. for the pair - not a bad price.

Re my comment about prices in UK

I raced a GS1000 for about 5 years, I only ever used stock Suzuki Cam gears(sprockets) which I slotted myself. As a matter of fact I only used the one set of sprockets. I was using .490 lift cams, the valves kissed the pistons more than once, but the one thing that never got damaged were the sprockets. Mind you it is hard work filing out that slot, it is better to get it milled out (more accurate too)

OK - I never said you couldn't use homemade slotted gears. It's up to you.

You can save yourself $50 (U.S. - that's the reason I specified U.S., so as not to confuse - I leave it up to you to do the translation) by doing it yourself. The forged will be lighter AND you will need slotted gears for an aftermaker cam anyway. I won't dispute the fact that you can do it yourself. It's simply not worth my time.

Throw away point #3 if you wish - I stand by 1 & 2.

[Paul]

Swanny, I wasn't trying to knock you or what you said.
As Shawn is obviously running to a tight budget, every penny saved helps.
I was just trying to say that he could slot his own sprockets, which will work just as well as proprietary (spelling?) ones.