I had a few thoughts and figured I'd throw them out to the hive mind...

I'm looking at EVERYTHING I can do to the block within reason. I got to checking out the timing belt cover and a few little nuances.

1.) Can I use a titanium crank pulley bolt, and do they even make them? I know it seems frivolous, but with my lightweight pulley, new flywheel, lighter rods, and lighter pistons, I'm well on my way to reducing a lot of rotating weight. A "little" overkill shouldn't be a bad thing ;). With all of this other stuff, I'm already trimming close to 16-18lbs off of the stock RS rotating assembly. A 14lb flywheel is a compromise I have to make. 9lbs seem to mess up drag launches.

2.) "Aerate" the timing belt cover. Would installing breathers of some kind in the timing belt cover be a bad thing? I don't want to cut off the timing belt cover due to this still being a street car. It needs some protection from rocks, water, dust, and debris, IMO. The engine sits so low in the car that removing the timing belt cover section over the cam gears seems like an even worse idea. Most guys go that route to reach their adjustable cam gears anyway.

http://www.3sxperformance.com/images/cam-gears-fidanza-group-04-400.jpg

3.) I'm looking at making a custom set of cam gears, more for weight savings than timing adjustment. The ones I've studied look like they're machined from aluminum to create the body. But, then that body is pressed into a "sheath" with the gear teeth machined into it. What is that sheath made of? The keyways and anywhere a bolt goes into the pulley, uses a pressed in bushing on some of them. Do aftermarket cam gears deform at all or do anything weird?

...I've got nothing better to do at work under 3-5 feet of snow :lol:...

Aren't some of the cam gears made of plastic? I don't see how aluminum would be much of a weight savings.

Some folks have sacrificed 2 gears to make one by cutting each one with an exact same diameter and machining a shoulder to match up to on each one.

Fidanza had some in development....but were having issues with the multi trigger setup being of different magnetic properties (as explained to me anywho...)

There's muliple triggers on the stock cam gears? I haven't pried them off to look.

Seemingly.....I don't know if they're all magnets or if one is reversed to repel or what the dealio is. The engineers at Fidanza just skimmed over some of the issues making it difficult to iron out before they bring them to market.....

That link you posted in another thread showed some....I don't think it's German though.....Maybe Danish?
http://www.mobeck.com/mt/SubaruTopp.asp

Jay Storm

I don't know if someone makes a Ti bolt but you can have one machined for you. Titanium 6Al-4V is a popular choice to be milled

norexyet-thanks for the tip :)

storm- Now that I have a faster internet connection, I can dig up stuff like this a lot faster. I was wondering who would notice those ;). These heads look pretty interesting. The injector "bump" in the port is filled in...

http://www.mobeck.com/mt/Bilder/Prosjekt/Subaru/Innsugsportmod.jpg

The stock cam gear with the teeth for the trigger has a peculiar pattern... IIRC, it's offset about 90° each instance... 1 tooth, 2 teeth, 1 tooth, 3 teeth.

BTW, that page looks to be in swedish to me. I can't read it, but I can make out a few words here and there (I used to read up on Swedish sites about modding my old Volvo).

You can buy aluminum, titanium, ceramic, polymer, etc bolts from McMaster car (mcmastercarr.com). It won't make any noticeable difference, but its not overly expensive either.

Aren't some of the cam gears made of plastic? I don't see how aluminum would be much of a weight savings.
I'd think so. That plastic is pretty hefty.