What Is a Camshaft Used for?
A camshaft is a rod or shaft to which cams are attached. Cams are non circular wheels, which operate the cylinder valves of an internal combustion engine. The camshaft is also used to operate other gear-driven engine components. Camshaft design can determine whether the camshaft can help the engine produce heavy torque or higher RPMs.
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Cylinder Valve Operation
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The cams on the camshaft operate the intake and exhaust valves of the engine. This motion is performed at timed intervals during each cylinder's four-stroke cycle. The blunted point of the cam determines how fast the valve opens, how far it opens and duration of time it stays open. There is one cam for each cylinder valve.
Gear Driven Components
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A gear on the camshaft drives the oil pump and, on many pre-1990s cars, the distributor. A drive shaft connects the oil pump and/or distributor to the camshaft. The rotational action of the drive shaft turns the rotor of the distributor and operates the sump of the oil pump.
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Camshaft Design
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Camshafts are placed in either the center of the engine or directly over the cylinder valves. Engines with the camshaft placed in their center portion are called overhead valve engines. This is typical of many V-8 and V-6 US cars. The benefit of this arrangement is the engine has more low end torque, which means faster acceleration from stop or a high amount of merging power.
Engine with the camshafts mounted directly over the valves are known as overhead cam engines. There are fewer moving parts than an overhead valve engine. Therefore there is less inertia and this allows the engine to run at higher RPMs. This arrangement allows the engine to produce more power than a similar sized overhead valve engine.
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