Cam & such
 

While I'm on the 2014 Power Tour next month I'm going to see if I can get a deal on a cam and roller's for the 6.0 LQ4. There will be Eldelbrock, COMP Cams

Painless Performance

Holley

Hotchkis Performance

all there as sponsors so I should hopefully get a good deal on it.;):chevy:

Re: Cam & such
 

i have bought a lot of cams over the years and the two places i have been treated best was ultradyne and cam motion. I know the other brands you mentioned are sponsors of this site, and everyone's gotta get a buck somehow, including this site's owners. I will say I have never had a good cam related experience from the major cam brand you listed, and actively discourage people from buying them.

Re: Cam & such
 

good luck and putting in a cam will really wake up that 6.0!
Just don't over cam and you will enjoy it so much more.
I have personally used texas speed and tick performance myself with great results.
cheers
bpatrol

Re: Cam & such
 

we will change it in the parking lot...You up for that?

Re: Cam & such
 

+1

Re: Cam & such
 

Is quality one of the issues you've found with the major's....like cam's that don't meet specs.... or is this more like your "service after the sale" position.

Re: Cam & such
 

one was soft and the other didnt match the spec card. really no biggie, **** happens especially with a big company.

i'm just going elsewhere next time. every buck is a vote and i'd rather vote for the little guys. i wanna be able to pick up the phone and call him and that's worth and extra ~$75 i'd say.

Re: Cam & such
 

and i should retract that statement about never having a good experience with the major
i had quite a few good experiences up until i had some sour grapes. I heard they were farming custom cams out or something and that caused my grief. I dunno. I hate s-talkers so imma just shaddup. i still got their stickers all over my tool boxes. just my 2 cents really.

if you wanna have your ear gnawed raw about cam stuff, give howard a call. that guy has forgotten more about cam design than most cam designers have ever learned.

Re: Cam & such
 

The problem with some of the "big" companies, is a little bit of "slight of hand"

There are only a small few companies who actually MAKE cam-blanks.
There are a FEW that buy their blanks and grind their own.
The MAJORITY have the same large company grind their cams to spec.
VERY FEW actually make their own blank, and grind it in-house to spec...its just too much setup cost.

So, what ends up happening is 10 companies sell different "versions" of the same basic grind #'s. Comp can grind 1 cam, more or less the same way, for 10 companies who sell it as something different.

I like Texas Speed and Pat G, both of which I believe are on Comp blanks. Tick's Polluter cam is also nice, but borderlines over-camming an otherwise stock motor. I'm using the TSP Tsunami, and I'm admittedly over-cammed for the setup. Once the my heads are on, that will change.

Re: Cam & such
 

I've put a few tick sns cams in fbodies with only a stall and I have to say none have been a disappointment. They all perform great and sound nasty.
Not much weight difference between one of our trucks and a full weight fbody.

Re: Cam & such
 

I went the conservative route and put a Comp LSr 265 in my 5.3 along with a Yank TT2600 stall & Blackbear tune. Runs very well for a 5200# ('05 GMC ccsb w/me in it) truck. Over 30k miles since the swap and no issues at all.

I also have a custom Bullet hyd roller cam in the 468 BBC I built for my '69 C10, spec'd by Chris Straub.

For a stock engine, nothing wrong with an of the shelf cam from a company like Comp as long as you don't get crazy with it and match your parts accordingly.

Re: Cam & such
 

Getting an off the shelf cam is foolish when there is minimal cost difference.
Call Martin @ Tick and get one spec'd for your application - gear/converter/weight and know it's done correctly and leaves nothing on the table.

Re: Cam & such
 

Tick, just like the others, will have a standard blank ground to spec. With how many of these that are done, even a "Custom" spec cam usually falls into an existing part #. While he may spec something "custom", most likely its an existing part, and not literally a start-to-finish 1-off.

If you call Martin with an otherwise-stock setup, you'll still get a shelf-grind cam....it just won't have a "name". That being said, Tick does make good cams. On a stock setup, the 50-100$ for a "custom" grind isn't really netting you anything different. I'd put the difference toward a convertor and get a combo that makes the best use of its entire powerband.

Re: Cam & such
 

Tick and all the others pick the lobe combinations. That's what separates them from an OTS offering via Jegs/Summit.
Cost difference between one of Tick's grinds and a custom cam is $20. $20 well spent.

Re: Cam & such
 

since we are on custom cam chit chat, I'm curious now just how many companies are slinging the "Custom grind" lingo around.

Last year about this time, Ed Curtis ground me a cam. He was more than helpful and even gave me Brian Tooleys info to call them to get the rest of my valvetrain set up properly (Which I did). Unfortunately I have not gotten around to putting all the goodies in my '04 6.0L yet. Its probably a bit overkill but like Brew City, by the time everything is together, it should be right at home in my motor. But this was my first custom...err... Non-off-the-shelf cam and I have not gotten to see the results of changing to a ground cam as opposed to an off-the-shelfer. Just curious to know how much of the cookie cutter cam stuff is really out there now and if the extra $$$ will show through for the custom grind

Re: Cam & such
 

Most cam companies will offer a "Custom" variant. There are only so many lobe-types and possible useful combinations on any engine setup. Sometimes, its only one thing, like LSA, that makes the cam "custom" from the shelf cams.

If you count up the companies that straight-up grind their own cams, you can probably have a few fingers or toes left to count on.

The VAST majority of even the bigger companies have their cams made, or sourced from CMC, Engine Power, and another company that I think is now a subdivision of Federal Mogul...the people that make a huge market share of parts-store replacement stuff.

These same companies made the O.E. stuff for most companies.

Re: Cam & such
 

Ah, nicely worded.. makes sense. Too bad the cam business isn't as we sometimes envision it (or maybe I'm crazy). A guy at a lathe loading a solid rod of billet and looking at the email you sent with a scribbled page of numbers to make the perfect cam for each individual lol

Sorry for the Hijack Andy, hope you score some good stuff on the Power Tour. Always wanted to cruise a leg of it but never seems to work out. Best of luck to you!!

Re: Cam & such
 

A very few still are, but mostly in the extremely high-end side of things...for example building cams that use an uncommon blank (testing new lobe types and materials, building something so rare no stock blank would work). Even in professional racing, the cam design is usually a stack of spreadsheets, flow numbers, and AutCad. They run bench testing, output the #'s to a machine that grinds blanks, and there you are.

My very good friend designs engine parts for a number of O.E. companies. When he designs a new cam for an engine, he simply selects the model for a particular blank or lobe design. Then he does the math and engineering work to figure out the event timing. That file gets sent to a specialty machine shop that runs batches in the machine.

You can still find dudes who "hand" grind cams for little engines, vintage motorcycles etc....but for the modern engines its just not they way things are done anymore.

Re: Cam & such
 

Thanks guy's for all the info on cams! I still want to check with the vendors during the tour!
Well as stated since I have 7 days with all these differant vendors hopefully someone will have a deal on their cams for the 6.0's while I'm on the tour.;):chevy:

Re: Cam & such
 

i really like the image of a guy loading a machine and making em one at time.

some years back I was interested in cam design and priced out some machines
there is always a market for weirdo cams, 401 nailheads, amc guys etc...

a decent storm-vulcan grinder was running $10k, probably more now

so i bought another comp cam and stfu

Re: Cam & such
 

Martin was great to deal with. My Tick turbo cam is so much more responsive than the Speed Inc grind I had before.

Re: Cam & such
 

I've always heard awesome stuff about Tick, and clearly the one in your blazer is working out. I'll definitely keep em in mind next time around. I have had a couple friends that used FTI with great results and were easy to deal with over the phone and emails. I figured thats more than enough reasons to give them my business.

Re: Cam & such
 

http://www.milwaukeemodeltclub.com/G...dingValves.JPG

This guy is grinding old school valves, but the image in my head isn't too far off from what I would hope a cam maker should look like lol

Re: Cam & such
 

For RC engines

http://www.rc-tech.net/cars2/old/cc1.jpg

Re: Cam & such
 

Thats awesome! I made a little drill jig so that I can drill holes at angles through steel, bout as far as my machinist skills go .... it mostly works.... your "lathe" looks much nicer and professional ...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=486889