Here is the note I sent to Lunati, have not heard back from them yet. In the second photo the wear on the bearings was concentrated in the lower half of each bearing; basically the lifters were pushing the cam down into the bearings.
I have a small block Mopar 360 that had a Lunati H215 cam in it. I took the engine apart to change cylinder heads, and was going to install a Voodoo cam. Both of the cams mentioned had the cam journals belt sanded by Lunati, with the center 3 journals turned more than the end two. I say belt sanded because the oil holes in the cam journals have the edges rounded off which looks like the result of belt sanding. When I ordered this last Voodoo cam I asked that the cam journals NOT be turned as I wanted to preserve oil pressure, and I have no problems fitting a cam to cam bearings
But the voodoo cam also arrived with reduced journal diameters even though I specifically asked not to have this done. By the way a little scraping here and there as needed of cam bearings is usually all that is necessary for smooth rotation of a new cam fitted to new bearings
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After less than 3000 miles the H215 cam I took out was wearing itself into the NEW cam bearings that were installed at the same time as the cam; with the center 3 bearings having obvious grooves worn into the bottoms. Cam journal to bearing clearance measured 0.005 inch at worst location. The end two bearings had tapered wear suggesting the cam was bending as it rotated. The crankshaft rod and main bearings showed NO signs of excessive wear with bearing clearances still within factory new specs, so the wear problem was focused at the cam.
It appeared the cam journals were too small compared to the bearings and were not supporting an oil film, rather the small journals were squeezing the oil out and allowing for metal to metal contact.
So I ordered a new cam from another mfgr, and it happened to have the same cam core as the voodoo cam and did not have any sanding of the cam journals
..the journals were 0.0005 to 0.0015 inch larger than the voodoo. When I test fitted the voodoo cam, its journals were so small the cam rode low in the NEW cam bearings and was trying to push the rear cam bearing out the back of the block as I slid the cam in place. With the other cam it slipped right in place after a minimum of fitting of the cam to new cam bearings.
Maybe your opinion is that belt sanding cam journals makes for quick easy drop in installation in engine blocks that have not had the cam bearing bores line bored. But reducing the cam journal diameters means they are already smaller than stock and thus the cam cannot be fitted to the cam bearings.
The problem I was having with cam bearing wear appears to be caused by too much oil clearance of the Lunati cam, and the replacement voodoo cam had similar small cam journals. These Lunati cams have become a waste of money and time. Lunati has a nice selection of cam lobes, but I cannot continue wasting time and money and risk snapping a cam in half while on the road. If you want a new in box single pattern voodoo cam I can send it to you, otherwise it is just a paper weight or tossed in the trash.
IMO Lunati should stop sanding cam journals, quit second guessing the bearing clearance, and leave it to the machine shop/builder to properly fit a cam to cam bearings.
Phil
