KMD Uprated Cam Follower - Stage 2+ Users Please Read!

[tobycruse]

After my OEM cam follow broke and damaged my cam shaft I have felt it necessary to inform everyone that there is an uprated part to avoid this ever happening. KMD make an uprated cam follower out of the same material that the OEM cam shaft is made of, hence reducing or stopping wear altogether.

Take from KMD's site:

After months of R&D, KMD Tuning is pleased to present another product to our 2.0T line up.

Typically, customers don’t pay mind to their cam follower and as you all know, the factory cam follower can cause fuel cuts when worn down. Additionally, from our experience and testing, when using an after market fuel pump the cam follower can wear down even quicker then normal.

With that in mind KMD designed a follower made from the factory material, hardened to the same spec, and is .028 larger then factory. We also eliminated the factory c-clip (one less thing to fail). The reason we decided to use this specific increase was because after trying larger and smaller sizes this was the most efficient without causing cam wear.

At 10k the follower thickness was at .019 and at 20K it was at the factory size, which now gives you an extra 20K and most importantly, piece of mind! This testing was done over a period of 8months on 4 diffrent vehicles. They varied from stock to stg3 500hp cars. When running a stock car the wear on the follower was even less then stg1 vehicle.

I have found a seller on eBay that is prepared to do a discount on a bulk buy. The followers are normally $90 + shipping but I believe if we get a good amount in we can reduce that.

$90 maybe a lot for a follower but its a hell of a lot cheaper than £800 worth of repairs.

 

[akash_sky1]

good find if i was running a HPFP I'd get one no doubt

 

[N8]

Well done Toby, wondered why you were very quiet on this forum for a long while.

 

[KRL]

I decided not go with the KMD Cam Follower after doing some research because it does not have a DLC coating like the OEM follower does. Yes it may be thicker and may not wear as quickly but it will be in direct contact with the Cam shaft - metal on metal.

DLC coating is diamond-like carbon, which is extremely hard and slick. It also holds oil very well on a microscopic level. The coating slides along and prevents the underlying substrate from being worn. The point is that the interface between follower and cam is NOT supposed to be metal on metal.

I would be concerned that the KMD follower may cause more wear on the head of the Cam than the OEM follower.

 

[david_phillips95]

I decided not go with the KMD Cam Follower after doing some research because it does not have a DLC coating like the OEM follower does. Yes it may be thicker and may not wear as quickly but it will be in direct contact with the Cam shaft - metal on metal.

DLC coating is diamond-like carbon, which is extremely hard and slick. It also holds oil very well on a microscopic level. The coating slides along and prevents the underlying substrate from being worn. The point is that the interface between follower and cam is NOT supposed to be metal on metal.

I would be concerned that the KMD follower may cause more wear on the head of the Cam than the OEM follower.

I was just thinking that myself but wasnt 100%, good post KRL

Davie

 

[warren_S5]

I feel compelled to question why KMD wouldn't coat the cam follower like the OEM unit as you would think it would be a case of bolster the builder quality up, but retain the best bits of OEM,

Is the coating something you could get done 'aftermarket' if you wanted to go this route (particularly given the expense Toby has been exposed to with the failing follower).

 

[KRL]

I feel compelled to question why KMD wouldn't coat the cam follower like the OEM unit as you would think it would be a case of bolster the builder quality up, but retain the best bits of OEM

I agree and do not understand why they would not coat it. KMD themselves state they have made their follower from the factory metal which the OEM follower is made of. This is of course a good thing because if it was made of a harder metal it would cause more wear on the cam shaft and if it was weaker the follower would wear more quickly.

Is the coating something you could get done 'aftermarket' if you wanted to go this route (particularly given the expense Toby has been exposed to with the failing follower).

Yes I think so, a quick google found this company:
http://www.diamonex.com/materials/dlc--diamond-like-carbon/

 

[tobycruse]

I have just spoken to KMD directly. There revised cam follower does include a DLC coating so there is nothing to worry about there. It seems their old version did not have this coating but they have since revised it.

 

[KRL]

Thats good to know Toby :icon_thumright:

Thank you for finding out.

 

[mkimjoon]

I would highly stay away from any KMD stuff as a lot ppl in the stats are having problems left and right.
For example...
http://forums.fourtitude.com/zerothread?id=4784040

 

[Backdraft Motorsport]

toby and everyone else. KMD have made us aware that there are some bad ebay copy pumps and followers going around under the KMD brand name. Please check before buying. KMD will have info on who they have sold their products to.

We have still had no issues with the KMD products.