Roller cam followers

[Genie47]

May I know what these are? Honda cars are equipped with these as far as I know. An SAE paper: 1999-01-3468 "The Effect of 0w-20 Low Viscosity Engine Oil on Fuel Economy" was written by Honda R&D engineers. My interest in this is that the paper cited engines with "low friction" AKA roller cam followers are able to take advantage of friction modifier technologies in engine oil and hence the ability to take advantage of 0W20 and 5W20 oil.

 

Oh yeah, before I forget, what are slipper cam followers. This paper is really interesting thanks to Jay from the BITOG forums. He noted that the paper also commented that viscosity of engine oil to have better FC also has a lower limit. Too low and FC will suffer as well increased wear.

Edited August 30, 2004 by Genie47

[Cardinal]

Very cheem leh... can translate to Hokkien or not?

 

I think simplest way is to refer to the car's manual, which usually states the range of oils that are acceptable. Then try it our and see if there is any improvement.

 

Eg some of the higher range JDM Honda models were actually NOT able to take 0w-20, and I think it's cos they had overly high compression ratio. So it's not just whether you have roller cam followers (whatever they are) or not.

[Dwoon]

I know what cam followers are but not sure how they are utilised in cars. Roller as in roller bearing type instead of ball bearing type?

 

You know what a cam is right? The cam follower basically rolls along the profile of the cam during the cam rotation. What you get is a rotational movement (cam) being converted into a linear (back & forth) movement on the follower. The timing of the linear movement is controlled by the cam profile.

Edited August 30, 2004 by Dwoon

[Genie47]

Yes I know. But there are slipper cam followers as well. Anyway, the paper can be downloaded from SAE at the price of USD12. Quite OK lah but I would like a free read. Not that hardcore but interesting to note that Hondas with the roller cam followers are prime candidates for using low viscosity oil. The lower limit is at 2.6cP and they measured the HTHS as well. So it will be good to know when purchasing oil if you are a Honda owner.