>I've been looking for a performance cam for the Vintage Racer I'm
restoring.
>Check with Classic and Specialties, nothing. Found a company called Daytona
>cams in Florida thru an Internet search. I sent them " Howe Exhaust" cam
specs
>from Chris McGovern book,( Pages 146&7). The contact person, Neil, E mailed
me
>back that they can grind to those specs. Cost $80.00 plus shipping. This is
>less than I spent for an Isky cam 10 years ago. I am going to have one
done. I
>will let your guys know my experience and accordingly the results once it's
on
>the track.
Non hardcore engine types ought to delete this message now.
Some of the cams listed in that book are pretty stout.
Many performance cams of the 60s were manufactured, not reground.
Long duration, higher lift, and altered lobe centers allows the engine to do some interesting things.
Not to puke on your supplier, but no cam shop should ever say that they can regrind to any spec without having your core in hand.
For instance, the stock SII alpine cam has the following specs...
Lobe lift .295 (.400 valve) Lobe centers 110 deg. lash to lash duration (int/exh) 252 deg
If the "proposed cam" falls significantly outside those parameters, there just is not enough meat on the cam to shift the paramters into spec.
>From my experience in making hypo alpine cams, the biggest killer
in making a good cam from a stokc core is valve lift.
Asking more lift than the core had, reinforces the requirement that you stick pretty close to the original lobe centers, and duration.
On both of my alpine cams, the Grinder "Crower" was able to meet my grinding specs, but each time was forced to cut into the base circle of the original cam, to get more duration, and to shift the lobe centers just a few degrees.
What I am saying here is that any cam that....
1)shows advance of more than 2 degrees from symetrical can not be ground from an alpine core. (must be offset keyed).
2) has high lift and/or long duration will alter the valve geometry due to loss in base circle.
In order to be certain that there is enough meat in the core cam, the grinder must ask a few questions in advance, AND must have the cam in hand, where the existing profile is verified, prior to quoutation.
Some no name grinders can get away with supplying ambiguous cams to customers, who will never check thier work.
I recommend that you check the work, so that you know to what specs your cam was trully ground, so that it might be possible to reproduce that performance on another engine in the future.
Things to think about.
Jarrid