Cams for Dummies ??

halfafish said

I would like to understand how to pick a cam, and how all the other factors affect selecting the right cam. I'm not an idiot but just reading what I can find here it's like the harder I try to get it the less it all makes sense.

Is there a good book, website, or tutorial I can use to get a handle on this?

TIA!

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Get the Billy Godbold book on cams. That’s a start. Get the Taylor books. They are a bit spendy but they are about the best books for mere mortals on engine define and theory.

Ill get you the exact title in a bit.

None of these books will teach you how to pick a cam. What they can do is educate you to make the best decision with the least amount of trail and error.

I know some guys think you slide in a cam and make high dollar power but it doesn’t work that way.

I remember Larry Morgan said back in the early 2000’s that in that off season they went through a 55 gallon drum of race fuel just testing cams. If you are familiar with dyno testing that’s probably over 100 pulls.

IIRC, they only tested 3 or 4 cams. Even they couldn’t pick the “right“ cam the first time. They had to test.