The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi all, i've got a TVR 390SE which is in need of a bit of an upgrade and i hope some of you may have experience with the following cams.

The engine spec is a 3.9 block with cross bolting bosses but not cross bolted, the rest i don't know until i strip it down this weekend but probably Stage 2 heads and pocketed pistons. The current cam is, i think, a Kent H214.

The cams im looking at are;

Kent H224 or 234
Crower 50232 or 50233
V8 Dev H404

Any advice and real world experience will be much appreciated.

Thanks
Ben

What injection is it running?

MS2 controlling fuel and sparks.

Hi
Taking a slightly different perspective on this, rather then going for the cam with the most timing you can live with surley you want the one that is the best match for the rest of the engine you have?
With only stage 2 heads you probably do not want more than about 215 degrees of timing at .05" of lift, if you go for more then you will reduce the power off idle but not be able to take full advantage of the power further up the rev range because the heads won't flow enough. ie I think the 214 is probably in the sweet spot for the rest of the engine.
There are others on here who run the other cams you mention, Coops has one of the 502** series and one of the chaps with a very quick MGB circute car has a mechanical cam with about 235 degrees of timing, however Tonys heads are pretty thoroughly developed stage 3 heads and the MG runs Merlins.
Sorry probably not saying what you want here, but I would really consider the engine as a whole, if you do you will end up with a quickerpackage overall that is properly drivable. By all means go for more cam but match it with more fully developed heads and well designed exhaust headers and you will get much better results.
Best regards
Mike

Cheers Mike, i wouldn't be adverse to getting the larger valves put in my heads as i believe it's not a particularly expensive job, aroung £180 for the new valves and guides plus the cost of getting the existing seats recut, is that right?

Hi
That does not sound unreasonable to me.
Best regards
Mike

I have a 4.6 and use a Kent 248 with a custom 112 LCA

I find it great, nice idle (once warmed up) revs to 6500rpm

Useable power from 1500 rpm