Cam dowel pin & CAS. (N/A cams)

[240SXK]

I posted this on a local forum that nobody really cares about SR's other than to blow them up so hopefully i get at least an answer here.

So im running SR20DE camshafts on my redtop, (oem cams : 240/240, SR20DE cams 248/246) and i am well aware that the dowel pin for the cam gear is shorter on the N/A SR cams vs the RWD SR cams due to the CAS gear being driven by the cam.

however, i didn't swap the dowel pin as i noticed that fully assembled the dowel pin was long enough (But not quite) to pass the timing sprocket and spline into the CAS gear securely.

now i keep finding out bits online about the dowel pin interchange being a "MUST" as it has more effect with the CAS than just driving the gear.

my question is, does this pin ACTUALLY do more than just serve as a spline for the gear to be driven on? as in the CAS somehow being linked to this little pin to read proper cam angle and such? i haven't had a single issue with it but it's been brought to my attention a couple of times and i am not sure if there's more to the CAS system than just the two gears driving eachother.

this is how they are atm. no way in hell will the gear slip out of the pin or break or anything. it simply just could be a tad bit longer, but if the dowel pin serves no other purpose then it will stay this way.

[Mikester]

From the looks of it, and knowing how the helicals intertwine, I see no issue with it... but to be safe, you may want to wait for someone with more experience to chime in before calling it good.