Camshaft Suggestions


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By Drexel - 16 Years Ago
Hello all,   A couple years ago I had a reground camshaft go flat on me. All that fine ground metal circulating through the engine pretty much wiped it out. So here I am now, with all new components and would like to get some input on cam suppliers. Yes, I am going to buy brand new this time but who manufactures for the Y-Block besides Isky? What about custom grinds? Any and all suggestions appreciated.   Thanks, Dave
By simplyconnected - 16 Years Ago
Drexel (5/16/2009)
 ...I had a reground camshaft go flat on me...
Dave, it's common, especially on a re-ground cam.  I've had one original go, too.  At Ford, we induction case-harden each lobe with water gushing on it the whole time.  Regrind shops are supposed to do the same.

There are still a host of cams currently manufactured in just about any grind you like.  Comp Cams, & Crane are popular.  Tee-bird.com, macsautoparts.com, dennis-carpenter.com, and kanter.com all sell cams for Y-Block.

By speedpro56 - 16 Years Ago
Drexel, The manufactures that seem to put out custom grinds that are more on the high tech side of the curve and do a good job are Isky and comp cams. I'm sure other manufactures will do a good job too but these two companies seem to just stand out.

What specs are you building the engine too? A lot of the great minds on this site may have some good suggestions on what grinds work best under different circumstances. BigGrin

By Apache - 16 Years Ago
I haven't even breakin in my motor yet, but I got a Clay Smith grind.... Got it from Mummert... It's supposed to be a tad bit more aggressive than the 57 grind, give a lil more umph, but not too crazy, a good driver cam.
By pegleg - 16 Years Ago
There are still a host of cams currently manufactured in just about any grind you like.  Comp Cams, & Crane are popular. 

      Crane has closed their doors, out of business. There has been a rash of lifter compatibilaty issues recently. Doug Thrasher wiped out a cam a couple years back on a new engine. Schumann and Mummert have both had issues with this. I beleive Ted investigated this also, but don't remember where, or when. 

By Glen Henderson - 16 Years Ago
I have looked at Comp Cams site several times and can't find any listing for Y block cams.
By 62galxe - 16 Years Ago
Ted (http://www.eatonbalancing.com/) can get custom grinds made. Mine isnt running yet but im using one of his grinds.
By speedpro56 - 16 Years Ago
Comp cams have the blanks, just call and tell them what grind you want. Ted eaton as Kenny says can get you a custom grind cam as well and he's a real guru when it comes to building y-blocks.
By PF Arcand - 16 Years Ago
Drexel; Your Cam failure, give us details? Did you have new lifters? Were they off shore no name parts? Was a break in lube used etc? As noted, best buy the appropriate parts from someone like John Mummert in CA or Schumann Sales in Iowa, that advertise lifters with the correct parabolic specs etc.
By Drexel - 16 Years Ago
Thanks everyone for the replies. To clarify my post a little bit I will give some background on what happened. In 2006 I was all signed up to go to World of Speed at Bonneville in September. With the clock ticking, I had finished my truck about a week before time to go. Then the trouble began. High spring pressure, cranking to get it started with the Hilborn on it, disaster was already in the making. Got it going and ran it for 25 minutes.  Changed oil, adjusted valves and ran it some more the next night. Put it back in the shop and the next day I noticed the rear main leaking. Pulled the pan, took out half the seal and there were all these tiny silver flakes embedded in the seal face. Of course I denied anything was really wrong, loosened everything up to replace the upper seal then put it all back together. Oh yeah, that oil I changed was kind silvery too. I'm still in denial. Aw, it's just all that moly assembly lube! Besides I paid 300 bucks to run at Bonneville and I'll be darned if I'm not going. So we went, did awful, (barely broke 100) came home with my tail between my legs and put the truck away. After a year I pulled the motor apart and found the flat cam. Five good lobes and the rest looked like the lobe for the fuel pump, only worse.

The cam and lifters were done by a reputable shop. I posted a while back about the problem and maybe possible metal compatability issues. That's why I'm trying to do my research now to get good components. This time I will break-in with a carb, and weak springs, then change out later. The cams original specs were 255 degrees at .050". It's ashame it went bad cause it really had some snort to it!

The record for D/PP (Under 305 cubic inch/Production Pickup) was 157 mph but I think it has since been bumped to 164! The 157 should be do-able, 164...I dunno.  Sure wish I could get my hands on a set of those aluminum heads!

Well that's it in a nutshell, yup, that's me in the avatar...roaring off in my flat cammed pickup. Gotta keep my sense off humor!

Thanks again to those who posted I'm going to give Comp Cams a call and see what they have to offer.

Dave

By 57FordPU - 16 Years Ago
Dave,

In answer to your questions from the PM, I took the liberty to also show my answer here for anyone else who might be interested.

The cam in our original motor is a re-grind #34 from Oregon Cams.  The new engine will have a #686 grind.  The old engine had a calculated 310 hp at the flywheel (250 at the rear wheel).  With the new engine we hope to see 340 hp at the flywheel (275 at the rear wheel).  These numbers may not be big compared to others, but remember, we only have 258 cubic inches.  Engine builder Tim McMaster also uses re-ground lifters to go with the re-ground cams.

 The specs on #34 is.........

 Duration at .050                      for intake = 250          for exhaust = 250

Lobe separation                      107

Total lift (1.54:1 rockers)          .508 (for both intake and exhaust)

Lobe center                            for intake = 102          for exhaust = 112

 This is a wild cam and would hardly idle below 1600 rpm.  It worked great for us, but now we are looking for a little more.

 The specs on #686 is.........

 Duration at .050                       for intake = 252          for exhaust = 260

Lobe separation                       112

Total lift (1.54:1 rockers)           for intake = .545         for exhaust = 562

Lobe center                             for intake = 108          for exhaust = 116

 This cam should be even more wild with a higher idle.  It is still unproven for us, but with higher compression, better porting and a few race tricks, we have great expectations.

 I know the reluctance to go with a re-grind instead of a new blank from someone like CompCams.  In 2006, our first re-grind cam was from some shop in LA and I didn't use break-in oil or an additive.  It went flat (all my fault) while breaking it in during the first 20 minutes.  However, I purchased lots of break-in additive from CompCams and we have confidence that the cam will be OK even with the re-ground lifters.

 I have whipped this little pony many times during the last two seasons and it has never let me down (accolades to Tim McMaster).  In the final analysis, we will stay with re-grinds on both the cam and lifters.

 Hope this helps.................

By pcmenten - 16 Years Ago
Dave, I didn't see if you mentioned oil and additives. We have flogged the subject many times here, but the short answer is that ZDDP has been taken out of many of the motor oils that get sold these days. You need ZDDP to protect the cam. STP Oil Treatment in the red bottle (for four cylinder engines) and GM EOS are good sources of ZDDP.



Do a search on this site for ZDDP.