This is a purely theoretical mental exercise for me, and I ask since I know you guys know your stuff.

But I was thinking about how large cams obviously create more power, but the bigger the cam, generally the higher the powerband shifts. In fact, when oversimplified, you could say a big cam is almost analogous to a turbo in its effect on engine power and the power band.

People will use different size turbos together in order to address turbo lag concerns. Has anyone ever experimented using a cam that has perhaps 2 or 4 cylinders with a really conservative grind, and the rest with a really ridiculous pattern? For a better idle and a little more low end torque, and still get a lot of high end power.

I think about it, and it sounds really crazy, but I was thinking that it probably wouldn't work that badly. I can think of a million things that would make it complicated, but Im not sure any of them are what I would consider dealbreakers.

I guess if it worked it'd be a question about whether you'd compromise and get a little bit of the best of both worlds, or whether you'd just end up with a motor that idles like a race car and pulls like a street car.

Just some random thoughts... I doubt it would REALLY work, but who knows? You guys would know better than I would.

 

Variable Valve Timing is an old idea but unfortunately one I have yet to see implimented on any version of the SBC.

 

I think on the terms you are thinking of it would not be practical. However I would bet some big time racing teams may have different lobes that are specific to each cylinder. Kind of like eight different motors all tied together. However the differences in the lobes would be small and only to get the last bit of available horsepower.

 

ok techno bable here, running diffrent lobes in one engine would put alot of strain on the crankshaft and would also create havok with intake and exhaust pressures, however there are some race applications where the lobes on the rear cyl.s are ground slightly diffrent to make up for crank twist (some top fuel and funny cars do this) but thats with alot of research and knowing how much twist is in the crank and cam...kinda crazy. on another note some of the latest ls engines have variable valves but i think are used for varible displacement to improve fuel economy

 

Yea, the engine would shake like crazy due to the crank stresses being different from front to back.
Variable valve timing is your best bet. Some kind of rocker with a variable ratio, and the ratio is controlled by an electric motor. Like a shaft rocker but the shaft can be slid backwards or forwards...

 

there are some fast bleed lifters out there that can vary duration up to like 6-8* and lift .020-.030 from idle to 2500-3000 RPMS...