Significance of the term, "twin cam"

[superkork]

i have a 1998 grand am se.

when i bought my car, one of the first things i thought to myself while looking at the engine was, wow, a twin cam, that must be sweet-arse.

but really? is the term "2.4 liter twin cam" just a cool sounding term, or is it something similar to dohc, or what?

does this type or engine have significances over other engines?

thanks guys

[Saber69]

Well, Twin Cam is just GM's name for DOHC. Nothing special really. It's just a 2.4 liter dual overhead cam engine. Now, when GM built the 3.4 liter DOHC V6 for the W-body series, it had the unfortunate fate to fall into the GM title department too. It was dubbed the "3.4 liter Dual Twin Cam V6". It had two pairs of cams, two for each cylinder block. One was an intake, and the other the exhaust cam. You just have a single pait being an inline 4. So, one intake and one exhaust cam....."Twin Cam". :) Hope that helps some!!

[VanishingImage]

Well put.....Twin Cam is just an easier way of letting people know what kind of engine it is other then haveing DOHC written on the engine somewhere. Imports will have DOHC written and not Twin Cam if you have noticed as well;)

[superkork]

cool, so i guess i could say i have a dohc.

[VanishingImage]

Thats what you have:) Mitsubishi has DOHC as well as Honda for their Accords and Preludes i think.