Originally Posted by
Bart Sanders
Hi!
Camshaft chains do get longer over a long period of running. That's why there is an automatic chain tensioner which keeps the slack out of the non-pulled half of the chain. As long as the chain does not become too long - i.e. the tensioner can not compensate anymore slack - the chain and camshaft timing are perfect. Please note, the camshaft is controlled by the PULLING part of the chain. And indeed, in our beloved Jialing JH600 the camshaft rotates counter clockwise, as does the crank-shaft, viewed from the left side of the engine. And the non-pulled side with the slack is (of course!) at the correct side, i.e. the right side viewed from left side of engine.
But, back to the sensor. I seriously doubt if you need it, when the engine has a crankshaft position sensor anyway!. Remember that the crank-shaft and the cam-shaft always run in a fixed ratio of two revs for the crank, make one rev for the camshaft, so 2:1 gear ratio.
In other words, if you know the crankposition and the cam chain/ cam gears are correctly installed, the position of the camshaft is also always known to the ECU!
The only (small) error which creeps in over time is the camshaft timing which indeed changes a little bit when the chain gets longer and longer. But, this elongation is (very) small and most likely introduces such a small error in camshaft timing that one can accept this.
I suspect (!!!) that Jialing/AVL tried to make it perfect and measure exactly this small timing error over lifetime of the chain and keep the ECU timing moments (injection, ignition) as good as possible at the optimal moment.
I further suspect (!!!) that this positive endaveour results in too much problems in real-time, like..... stalling!
As stated, our JH600 works without this sensor and guess what, it does NOT stall. At all.