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

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.

Royal Oak, Michigan (Four miles north of Detroit, and 12 miles NORTH of Windsor, Canada).  That's right, we're north of Canada.

Ford 292 Y-Block major overhaul by simplyconnected

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.

-Gary Burnette-

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.

William



1957 Ford Fairlane 500

292 Bored .30 over

Fordomatic

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. 

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

I have looked at Comp Cams site several times and can't find any listing for Y block cams.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

Ted (http://www.eatonbalancing.com/) can get custom grinds made. Mine isnt running yet but im using one of his grinds.

Kenny  Onalaska, Texas

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.

-Gary Burnette-

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.

Paul

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