Technologi Workshop in Mechanical Engineering

Different between DOHC & SOHC

SOHC and DOHC are basically two different ways to configure the valvetrain. In the whole valve train setup there are camshafts, lifters, rockers, valves and springs. It is best that the valvetrain is light. Valves open at intervals of 25 times a second at 3000rpm. If the valvetrain is heavy, when the camshaft lifts it the valvetrain will just keep going up until the valve spring catches it. This is called valve float. You can overcome this with stronger (which means heavier) springs, but this extra weight increases the power requirements to open the valve.

SOHC refers to Single Overhead Camshaft. In the days before DOHC, it was known as OHC, with no need to differentiate between a single or double camshaft. In SOHC, the camshaft is situated in the cylinder head, above the valves. The valves are opened and closed either directly with a shim between the cam lobe and the valve stem, or via a rocker arm. SOHC engine valve configurations typically have 2 or 3 valves per cylinder. It is also possible to have 4 valves per cylinder using SOHC but this translates into a complicated combination of rocker arms and cam lobe shapes. An example would be the 4G92P in my car which is a SOHC but has 4 valves per cylinder.


DOHC refers to Double Overhead Camshaft. This arrangement uses two camshafts in each cylinder head. Two cams per cylinder head means that a DOHC V engine has 4 camshafts because it has 2 banks of cylinder heads. This allows the manufacturer to easily implement a 4 valve per cylinder setup. Most of the time it also allows the engine to rev higher. It also allows better placement of the valves in an optimized setup that gives you maximum performance. But the disadvantage of such a setup is more weight, more cost and more complexity. It takes more stuff to drive two camshafts. The main reason to use DOHC is to drive more valves per cylinder. If a SOHC setup can allow 4 valves per cylinder, having a DOHC engine will not bring that much benefits over SOHC and the additional weight becomes a burden instead. DOHC engines also allows the spark plug to be placed right in the middle of the combustion chamber. This promotes efficient combustion. With SOHC, the camshaft is usually in the middle of the head because it has to drive both the intake and exhaust valves, robbing the sparkplug of it’s optimal location.

In the end, a SOHC 16 valve engine would have better torque on the low end where the DOHC valvetrain’s weight results in lower torque. But at high engine speeds, the 16 valve DOHC engine’s peak torque and horsepower would be greater. That’s the trade-off. With the amount of valves being equal, SOHC has better low-end torque because the valvetrain package is lighter while DOHC has better top-end power.