I've been collecting parts for the last few months in an effort to fit Schrick cams to my 3.2. I pretty much have absolutely everything I require (inc splashing out on a new 1/4" Torque Wrench just for the cam caps) with the exception of sourcing the equivalent of AMV 188 001 02 sealant (used to seal the upper timing chain cover) & AMV 174 04 01 (for the 3mm holes in the headgasket). So hopefully, weather permitting I will be swapping my cam out in a couple of weeks. However I came upon Ferrea lifter shims last month and have not investigated these in earnest - Are they a worthwhile addition for piece of mind or would I be throwing money away in fitting them? http://www.ferrea.com/Volkswagen-Retainers/p34334 I cant quite get my head around how these actually work, as in fitting I assume they reduce the amount of oil contained within the hyd lifter hence if you get high RPM bleed down then surely the follower will still drop off the cam lobes by the same amount given a unit amount of lifter bleed down with them fitted or not? Or have I got it all wrong? Secondly will the shims not increase valve lift by the rocker/roller ratio and risk the valve springs becoming coil bound? The reason I ask the latter is that I'm assuming the Schrick cams have greater lift than the stock cams and given I'll just be swapping the cams out and have no idea what the value of the stock spring travel is I'm understandably a little concerned. Discuss?
Speaking based on what i found on the FSI 2.0 engines...but the principles are the same Open length to fully compressed there is about 2.2 mm stroke,when the cams are fitted the lifter is already a bit compressed,lets say to 1.6 mm or so. At high revs ( from 6 K on) the hydro lifter can be completely compressed, the next moment the cam turns further and the clip that hold the roll follower attached to the hydro lifter get pulled off and as a result the roll follower end up somewhere else, no longer on top of the valve tip... creating havoc...the lifter shims just reduce the travel the hydro lifter can make to 0.5 mm or less... this to keep the clip/ spring more secure in position You wont get more lift as the roll followers has still the same geometry and valve lash in hydro setups is infact Zero I have no idea on the R32 head on what lift can be used but on the FSI 2.0 it can be tricky depending on valvelift used, 11.0 inlet and 10 mm exhaust works ...more lift is another story
Thanks for the explanation - For info I'm fitting Schrick 296I and 264E cams. So it sounds like the shims reduce the amount the lifter can bleed down whilst maintaining sufficient automatic adjustment for valvetrain wear? Sounds possibly like a win win situation and I'd be daft not to fit them?
Indeed,they just reduce the amount the lifter can compress and still be able to adjust, its a simple and cheap mod that can save you a costly repair when it throws off a roll-follower
^^^ As you can see in below links, the lifters are different but the principle stay the same.... you could fit a lash cap on the valve stem and reduce the amount the lifter can compress, but tbh i dont see a problem to run the std OEM lifter setup in a KR/9A/ ABF as long you keep revs within reason. Here a bit more on the roll follower setup as in FSI and R32: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5831816-Ferrea-lifter-shims http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3539217
Hmmm... Contacted Ferrea regarding a quote and they want $145 for some shims shipped to my door with no doubt the 20% tax on top. As such I'll try Integrated Engineering to see if they can better the ridiculous shipping price that Ferrea quoted. Failing that and it was not an option I had considered until another forum member mentioned it in a PM - I'll rattle out a dxf in Inventor and have a batch of some 0.9 or 1.0mm THK shims LASER profiled instead.
Ideal cheers Justin Still a bit expensive but I've dropped them an email to see if they have any in stock.
Email or phone I found a lot of this kind of places never email you back I'd just buy them and hope for the best
I'm going to cost up making a few sets and perhaps punt the rest but only to recoup my outlay. It may be that I'll just have to order them and hope for the best if having them profiled from suitable SS shim is cost prohibitive - although I cant possibly see why this would be the case.
