Originally Posted by
Glowgeek
We all played with cam timing quite a bit in my drag/road racing racing days, amateur-ish as we were. Advancing cam timing for peak torque at lower rpm, retarding for peak torque at higher rpm. Cam timing changes using higher duration cams has a more dramatic effect on performance than with stock cams; due to a greater change in cranking compression/dynamic compression ratio.
True... retiming the cam at best changes the RPM's where peak torque and peak power happen, and with some luck, shifting peak power to a higher RPM will maybe, possibly result in a bit higher peak output, but it comes with a severe penalty in "drivability at lower RPM.
Different cams are the only real solution if you really want to extract more power from the engine. Because advancing or retarding an existing cam changes both opening AND closing times, and that is never "optimal".