One of the simplest engine upgrade is to get the OEM cams swapped out with something a bit more aggressive. Once again, the forums are full of details around which cams are the best depending on what you are looking to achieve.

As for me, Toda A3 is where I really want to end up, however I am advised that for this, I will need to upgrade the springs too. Toda cams are somewhat expensive too.

In getting me on my way, I decided to start off with the simplest cam upgrade. I bought a set of JDM cams of an Ebay seller and had Gavin install them on the car.

Speaking to Gavin, he tells me that he was able to do the work without removing the rear clam, however He did have to jack up the engine a little to give himself a bit more room to lock the cam chain in place.

Oh, he also took this opportunity to check and adjust all valve clearances and this has made a big difference to the way the engine sounds. I had a lot of tappety noises and they have all gone. Honda recommends doing this every 60 - 100K miles ( I read)

Cams going in...

Initial thoughts.

Well, not much has changed. The JDM cams only increases duration and for that you should be able to call on a bit more mid range torque. For this, there will be a need to get the car re-mapped.

I will update the entry once I the car has been remapped on the new cams. Until then, you just have to wait!

Quick update:

I had the car re-mapped by Romain (Euro-spec 2000) and results were pretty good.

Being reversed onto the Dyno...

One of the runs...

The engine has gained a noticeable amount of mid range torque and a little bit of power. We found 5bhp on the top end and 10 torques ( a little bit more in places) at mid range.

On the go, you can really feel the smoothness of the power delivery and it just pulls really hard a linearly to the limiter.

Conclusion:-

So, the question is, is it worth the investment? Well, yes and no. If you are looking for big power gains, then I would suggest that you consider some of the other cams, together with spring upgrades etc. But, if you want to squeeze a bit more usable power from your current setup, then this is a cheap way of upgrading the engine. I shopped around and ensured that I didn't pay too much money for the cams and avoided buying new. This is the best way of purchasing.

Am I happy? Yes!