Check on the earthing problem; I will give it some attention and perhaps, indeed, run an old piece of welding cable I have laying around as earth to bypass the body/chassis.
Regarding the cam: I never looked at it that way ;) I always figured, when wheeling and reaching a tough spot, say a muddy hillclimb, one usually chooses a gear and give it the boot. In those situations I definatly need the power curve to be above 2000rpm. Perhaps I am wrong here? I do notice the car to be sluggish in normal traffic but the 32" tyres combined with the standard diff ratio's does tend to do that anyway. I am not bothered by it really. It could still be though that the cam has too much overlap as suggested.
And hills? HA! you gotta be kidding me mate :) we have 2 to be exact and they are not what you would call a hill :P There is the "utrechtse heuvelrug" which is a ridge that was formed during the last ice age.
Utrecht Hill Ridge - Wikipedia
as you can see, with 68m at the highest point... not even worth mentioning. A 7% slope is the best I can give you over here :D Also there is a bit of a hill close to germany and way down in the south, none of them are more than a speedbump I suppose
The IACV I have right now is indeed a GM unit that fits the GEMS perfectly, except for the connector beeing at a different angle. When funds allow I will try the genuine article. I'll also try and record what the engine does using my faultmate but it seems that the ECU actually closes the IACV once a certain vehicle speed or engine rpm has been reached. Do you know of any such mechanic in the system to, for instance, avoid overspeeding or over idling?
Cheers,
-P
