HPFPUPGRADE
Banned
- Location
- Auburn, WA
This thread will be for cam follower updates on our product vs the OEM unit. It will include our testing, component processes, and final results. I hope you like the info contained below :thumbsup:
OEM pump cam follower:
Its a great piece for stock fuel pressure, if you up the fuel pressure it becomes a pain to maintain.
Testing:
OEM surface test show RC scale of 28 (DLC coatings are not the black stuff, its more like dry film lube or something) under the coating the metal itself is pretty tough, scored a 54 on the RC scale. After you rub off the top layer of black stuff it gets pretty hard under neath.
OEM lubricity is very good, until you wear through the black layer. The RZ finish is 110 to 120 (very rough) after the first surface layer of the black is removed. The surface is very slick, but we couldn't get an acurate RZ surface finish due to the coating being "irregular" (no idea what that means, but it was not an even coating).
When all the black material is worn away, its more or less a metal piece of sand paper grinding away at your cam or in this case wearing down the cam follower very quick.
All in all, the OEM unit is very good for low force applications (under 120 bar) and should last 50k miles under these operating conditions with proper oil changes done every 3k miles.
Upgraded Follower:
This follower will suport 135 + bar and high RPM limits for extended periods of time.
Testing:
Our follower "had" a hard chrome face that is .00065 to .00080 thick (thickness of a human hair). With the first batch of testing we found that chrome this thick could wear after several 10's of thousands of miles. Next test was to double the thickness of the hard chrome face. The testing results on that came back with excellent results, very little signs of wear on the cam drive, pump or the follower (average testing was 12k miles). To verify thickness of the cam followers we were using air gauges and every cam follower was marked with its size before shipping, this way we could keep an accurate count on the wear and surface RZ finish. The highest wear out of any of our cam followers was 12% at the crome face. Over all wear (total thickness) was only .02%.
Surface testing shows a RZ finish of 8 to 12 (mirror finish) on our new units. Its so slick that you can put a drop of oil on it and rub your finger on it and it will slip right out of your hand.
RC scale shows 62 on the part when new and 60 on the part after 10k miles. This is normal with a hard chrome part, they will drop a point or two when its been "worked". The surface RZ after 10k miles is still in the single digits to low teens, this is amazing considering the amount of abuse and wear that this part must go through.
Wear/lubricity, well... it should never wear out and the surface is very, very slick. The hard chrome if properly lubricated will have a lifetime of 100's of thousands of miles. This application or hard chrome has been used in other applications for 100's of thousands if not millions of miles.
Applications such as:
Over head valve buckets (seen them go a million miles)
Lifter bases on push rod motors, seen them go 100's of thousands of miles
Lash caps for valves (push rod and over head cams), seen them go 100's of thousands of miles
There are several other applications that use this method of hard chrome but you get the idea.
Weight, we were able to make this part while only increasing the weight 10% over the OEM unit. 10% is not going to effect pump performance or pump output until you are running 9,880 RPM, at this RPM the pump push back and pump spring will start to valve float.
Thickness, has only been increased .015 of an inch. We increased the thickness of the follower at the base in order to keep the flex and heat away from the chrome surface. Thicker will allow for a more rohbust part, and increased reliability.
I have attached a two pictures of our prototype part that we recived back. As you can see, the cam follower has worn the chrome down some (this is a thin surface treatment part, the thicker units do not show wear like this). This part lived at 130 + BAR for 25k miles (long term tester) and he used our pump and follower for tuning, testing and tracking his car. The pictures speak for themselfs!
Production is still a month out (or more) pending we get the last few remaining test units back to us. We have over 100K + miles on more than 20 different test units, all ranging from stock cars to all out race cars. All of the testers have been very happy with the results and from what we have seen we are as well.
The big question... Why has no one addressed this before?
It was easy to see that something needed to be done to the OEM unit. It was easy to see that we needed a solution for the part. It was not easy to find a solution, until... I had a cam shaft bucket fall out one day when I was moving a head around and it was very similar to the size of the OEM cam follower for the VW fuel pump. I picked it up and got to thinking.. hmm why does this part last 100's of thousands of miles with more than two times the load yet it doesn't wear out. I took the word of those that said the OEM unit was DLC coated but then realized that it must not be because they wear so quick with much less load.
At that point I realized that something needed to be done that was affordable, so I started ordering up other fuel pump follower drive buckets from other platforms... and guess what, they are all hard chromed. It was then that I had the engineering papers done up and submitted them for patent protection (pending), then we started working on an upgraded unit that wouldn't cost the end user "lots" of money.
Last, we have a working solution that went into production just a few weeks ago. We should have 1,000 units ready in a month or so, we are just waiting for our spot to come up at the shop that does the hard chrome (been waiting 6 weeks now).
If you have any questions about this product, please feel free to ask. Pricing is still TBA because we are not sure what the total is going to be for the quanity we are getting done, we have high hopes that it will be under $150 to the end user. The processes are not cheap and the part has to go through polish two times (once before coating, once after). This drives cost up a great deal when you are shooting for a finish that is double 00 or greater (RZ of 8 or less). When we have them on hand I will make sure to list them on a GB or sale from our website as well as list them here in the "for sale" section.
Thanks,
John
OEM pump cam follower:
Its a great piece for stock fuel pressure, if you up the fuel pressure it becomes a pain to maintain.
Testing:
OEM surface test show RC scale of 28 (DLC coatings are not the black stuff, its more like dry film lube or something) under the coating the metal itself is pretty tough, scored a 54 on the RC scale. After you rub off the top layer of black stuff it gets pretty hard under neath.
OEM lubricity is very good, until you wear through the black layer. The RZ finish is 110 to 120 (very rough) after the first surface layer of the black is removed. The surface is very slick, but we couldn't get an acurate RZ surface finish due to the coating being "irregular" (no idea what that means, but it was not an even coating).
When all the black material is worn away, its more or less a metal piece of sand paper grinding away at your cam or in this case wearing down the cam follower very quick.
All in all, the OEM unit is very good for low force applications (under 120 bar) and should last 50k miles under these operating conditions with proper oil changes done every 3k miles.
Upgraded Follower:
This follower will suport 135 + bar and high RPM limits for extended periods of time.
Testing:
Our follower "had" a hard chrome face that is .00065 to .00080 thick (thickness of a human hair). With the first batch of testing we found that chrome this thick could wear after several 10's of thousands of miles. Next test was to double the thickness of the hard chrome face. The testing results on that came back with excellent results, very little signs of wear on the cam drive, pump or the follower (average testing was 12k miles). To verify thickness of the cam followers we were using air gauges and every cam follower was marked with its size before shipping, this way we could keep an accurate count on the wear and surface RZ finish. The highest wear out of any of our cam followers was 12% at the crome face. Over all wear (total thickness) was only .02%.
Surface testing shows a RZ finish of 8 to 12 (mirror finish) on our new units. Its so slick that you can put a drop of oil on it and rub your finger on it and it will slip right out of your hand.
RC scale shows 62 on the part when new and 60 on the part after 10k miles. This is normal with a hard chrome part, they will drop a point or two when its been "worked". The surface RZ after 10k miles is still in the single digits to low teens, this is amazing considering the amount of abuse and wear that this part must go through.
Wear/lubricity, well... it should never wear out and the surface is very, very slick. The hard chrome if properly lubricated will have a lifetime of 100's of thousands of miles. This application or hard chrome has been used in other applications for 100's of thousands if not millions of miles.
Applications such as:
Over head valve buckets (seen them go a million miles)
Lifter bases on push rod motors, seen them go 100's of thousands of miles
Lash caps for valves (push rod and over head cams), seen them go 100's of thousands of miles
There are several other applications that use this method of hard chrome but you get the idea.
Weight, we were able to make this part while only increasing the weight 10% over the OEM unit. 10% is not going to effect pump performance or pump output until you are running 9,880 RPM, at this RPM the pump push back and pump spring will start to valve float.
Thickness, has only been increased .015 of an inch. We increased the thickness of the follower at the base in order to keep the flex and heat away from the chrome surface. Thicker will allow for a more rohbust part, and increased reliability.
I have attached a two pictures of our prototype part that we recived back. As you can see, the cam follower has worn the chrome down some (this is a thin surface treatment part, the thicker units do not show wear like this). This part lived at 130 + BAR for 25k miles (long term tester) and he used our pump and follower for tuning, testing and tracking his car. The pictures speak for themselfs!
Production is still a month out (or more) pending we get the last few remaining test units back to us. We have over 100K + miles on more than 20 different test units, all ranging from stock cars to all out race cars. All of the testers have been very happy with the results and from what we have seen we are as well.
The big question... Why has no one addressed this before?
It was easy to see that something needed to be done to the OEM unit. It was easy to see that we needed a solution for the part. It was not easy to find a solution, until... I had a cam shaft bucket fall out one day when I was moving a head around and it was very similar to the size of the OEM cam follower for the VW fuel pump. I picked it up and got to thinking.. hmm why does this part last 100's of thousands of miles with more than two times the load yet it doesn't wear out. I took the word of those that said the OEM unit was DLC coated but then realized that it must not be because they wear so quick with much less load.
At that point I realized that something needed to be done that was affordable, so I started ordering up other fuel pump follower drive buckets from other platforms... and guess what, they are all hard chromed. It was then that I had the engineering papers done up and submitted them for patent protection (pending), then we started working on an upgraded unit that wouldn't cost the end user "lots" of money.
Last, we have a working solution that went into production just a few weeks ago. We should have 1,000 units ready in a month or so, we are just waiting for our spot to come up at the shop that does the hard chrome (been waiting 6 weeks now).
If you have any questions about this product, please feel free to ask. Pricing is still TBA because we are not sure what the total is going to be for the quanity we are getting done, we have high hopes that it will be under $150 to the end user. The processes are not cheap and the part has to go through polish two times (once before coating, once after). This drives cost up a great deal when you are shooting for a finish that is double 00 or greater (RZ of 8 or less). When we have them on hand I will make sure to list them on a GB or sale from our website as well as list them here in the "for sale" section.
Thanks,
John
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PICT0019.jpg
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