Success with crow cams?

[ebxr82nv]

What success if any have people had with crow cams?

[b2tf]

Im not sure what your definition of success is but my XR8 has one in it and its run fine for over 6 months now.

[ebxr82nv]

I put their 549 cam in my xr6 and only gained 6kw

[Hillbilly F Truck]

Are they an Australian company?

[ebxr82nv]

They're located in Melbourne

[5.0 ED]

Yep an australian company that takes good cam grinds from other company's moves there lobe seperation slightly and changes durations by a degree or 2 and turning it into a dud, I have never come across a crow cam that performs as well as an equally sized good comp or crane, and normally have a lot less vacuum at idle too.

[ebxr82nv]

Originally Posted by 5.0whiteaughia

Yep an australian company that takes good cam grinds from other company's moves there lobe seperation slightly and changes durations by a degree or 2 and turning it into a dud, I have never come across a crow cam that performs as well as an equally sized good comp or crane, and normally have a lot less vacuum at idle too.

Dud is an understatment. Their stage 3 only gave 6 rwkw, what a waste that was.

[5.0 ED]

Well you do have to put things into perspective and for a lot cams to work properly they do need other mods. But still there's plenty of better cams than crow.

I was originally rather ****ed off with my cam, cause they have given me 5 different spec's for it, none of them actually match what i have mic'd up and measured off the cam, and it really is a big lumpy pig of a thing for a cam with supposedly only 222 duration. According to them it should run fine with no edit, sure if you want to be sitting at the lights with a hunting idle that bad it makes my car jump forward slightly each time. I've now got tuning ability on it, and been able to tune it out, but still it is a very lumpy cam for its size. But i've used crow's before and seen many other engines built with crows and they all seem to have poor idle and low vacuum. I reckon they use a larger advertised duration than what they spec, or its measured at a different amount to other brands.

Take an equivalent comp i've used and i can get it to idle smooth as and strong, same with the cranes. even the bigger comp with 232 duration has a stronger idle to it, than this.

I can also name a clevo that had a crow in it, on the dyno 120rwkw's, cam got pulled out and well thrown, a blue racer equivalent went in, exactly the same to make 170rwkw's, this car also then had a stronger idle and improved touque.

Im sure they may have a good grind around somewhere but i've never come across them and i hang around with 3 engine builders.

[ebxr82nv]

I've got 3" mandrel intake, Jmm race series headers and a 2.5" mandrel exhaust with straight through mufflers and a 2.5" metal cat. Apart from chip not sure what other go fast bits I'd need.

[bloggs24]

Originally Posted by ebxr82nv

I've got 3" mandrel intake, Jmm race series headers and a 2.5" mandrel exhaust with straight through mufflers and a 2.5" metal cat. Apart from chip not sure what other go fast bits I'd need.

I think your missing a supercharger!

[05_ENFORCER]

Crow Cams have needed a couple of decent R&D guys since the 80"s.

Maybe they can team up with a few of our well known sponsors and develop a decent grind for the Boss motors????????

Just my 1 1/2 cents worth.

[StealthAu]

Originally Posted by bloggs24

I think your missing a supercharger!

agreed :

[ebxr82nv]

Originally Posted by bloggs24

I think your missing a supercharger!

Yes that would be nice but I only had a couple of hundred not a couple of thousand. But who knows what the future may hold, twin cam turbo perhaps.

[JoesAu]

crow cams = stay away right away

[5.0 ED]

The thing always gets me is you never really find anyone that will defend them either. Like just about any other brand say blueracer by crane (cheap cams) you could bag them but you'll always get people defending them.

[b2tf]

I dont see why they need defending, my engine is fine and has given me everything i wanted out of it. Then again I dont care about numbers - I have a nice lumpy idle and a good engine note and thats what I like most :hihi:

[StealthAu]

Originally Posted by 5.0whiteaughia

The thing always gets me is you never really find anyone that will defend them either. Like just about any other brand say blueracer by crane (cheap cams) you could bag them but you'll always get people defending them.

I'll defend them, a 6rwkw gain isn't the worst result for a cam, a 50rwkw gain on the other had, is bullcrap.

[ebxr82nv]

But when they quote a minimum of 15, only getting 6 is crap.

[StealthAu]

Originally Posted by ebxr82nv

I put their 549 cam in my xr6 and only gained 6kw

Just out of curiosity, was the car tuned with the new cam?

[ebxr82nv]

No it hadn't been tuned, but crow said it didn't need to be to make the gains they were quoting.

[WiggyMK2]

My ef with an au motor is running a rather large crow grind. It makes 164 rwkw with just an exhaust, extractors, cai, manual and chip NO HEAD WORK. Nice lumpy idle but chugs the fuel like no tomorrow. Needs a Full ecu to work properly. The bloke that does all of my tuning etc deals mostly in crow cams and gets them to do a custom grind when there isnt a cam to suit the application.

Cheers, Wiggy

[Stav]

Originally Posted by ebxr82nv

No it hadn't been tuned, but crow said it didn't need to be to make the gains they were quoting.

Firstly , 6 rwkws is not a bad gain. I see you have an au xr6 hp. You had a good idle and good cam to start with in my honest opinion. Despite the hearsay and debate the stock au head and xr6hp head flow the same. I have seen the results on a flow bench.
It has been my experience that if you are chasing more power from a bigger cam that your car will need a tune. Cam manufacturers who tell you otherwise on a bigger cam are incorrect. The computer needs recalibration.

The au xr6 hp cam is a great cam and has been proven in manual form to be good for a 14.6 to 14.8 1/4 mile once tuned. Loxxr6 has run a 14.6 in his au1 xr6 hp manual tuned car.The reason for bad idle in the au is that it goes very rich from the cam as the airflow is very different and the ecu pours bulk fuel in to compensate. The result is a very rich idle and leaner part cruise and possibly dangerously lean full throttle. Freeway driving will return better than stock economy but city driving will return poor economy as a result.

If I had your car..I would get it tuned with the cam you prefer to keep. Your car will be alot faster either way as long as the tuner is decent.

Lastly the head needs porting to get the best out of the cam as it chokes the flow even with a bigger cam.

[ebxr82nv]

Is yours a custom grind or an off the shelf item? A 546 perhaps? Are you using the au rocker gear or ef?

Originaly I wanted the 546 but john from crow said the 549 would be a better item.
I'm starting to think their au grinds are compared to the e series. Maybe not enough demand to warrant the extra reserch $

[Stav]

Originally Posted by WiggyMK2

My ef with an au motor is running a rather large crow grind. It makes 164 rwkw with just an exhaust, extractors, cai, manual and chip NO HEAD WORK. Nice lumpy idle but chugs the fuel like no tomorrow. Needs a Full ecu to work properly. The bloke that does all of my tuning etc deals mostly in crow cams and gets them to do a custom grind when there isnt a cam to suit the application.

Cheers, Wiggy

The ef ecu accepts bigger cams more readily than the au ecu. I dont know why but it does.Your cam in an au will run alot worse.

[SSD-85]

is there a cam upgrade for an xr8 that doesnt need a new stallie? or is factory the best you can get?

[WiggyMK2]

Originally Posted by ebxr82nv

Is yours a custom grind or an off the shelf item? A 546 perhaps? Are you using the au rocker gear or ef?

Originaly I wanted the 546 but john from crow said the 549 would be a better item.
I'm starting to think their au grinds are compared to the e series. Maybe not enough demand to warrant the extra reserch $

I am not exactily sure what the grind number is. All i know is that we went for one grind bigger than what they use in the au saloon cars. Its not a custom grind, just off the shelf. All i can say, like stav said, get a custom tune. Its all in the tuning, you already have a leg up on me being able to use a capa flash tuner.

Cheers

[5.0 ED]

The whole point is what research?

[ebxr82nv]

Wiggy your cam sounds like just what I wanted to start off with but crow said no no no you want this one. I told them I didn't care if it idled well or used lots of fuel I just wanted the car to haul ***. They clearly didn't listen to me and now theirgona get some bad publicity.

[StealthAu]

Originally Posted by ebxr82nv

Wiggy your cam sounds like just what I wanted to start off with but crow said no no no you want this one. I told them I didn't care if it idled well or used lots of fuel I just wanted the car to haul ***. They clearly didn't listen to me and now theirgona get some bad publicity.

Get it tuned, regardless of brand find an au I6 that has had a decent result from a cam without a tune, doesn't happen.

[BOTTLEDUP]

Whoever you spoke to at Crow shouldn't have stated that the 549 camshaft will work without ECU mods... It clearly states in their catalogue that "Needs computer modification"