best camshaft brand

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I've used comp camps in a couple of my engines and had zero issues. I think if someone got a hold of an older on the shelf comp cam and lifter set, things would be fine.
 
IF a slant can run 350,000 with 4 life long career oil changes, with 2 new filters, using Quaker State.... well thats good enough for me!!!!! What has this to do with failed cam/lifters????? Ya ever see a slant with such!!!?????? :BangHead: :thumbsup: :rofl: :poke:
 
I've had good luck with Melling products. I just got done building and breaking in a warmed up 283 Chevy for a friend's 65 Chevy step side truck. Busted right off and broke in good. Melling cam and lifters. Good oil pressure, nothing in the break in oil when we drained it. Nothing in the filter. Has a nice little lope to it. He's a happy camper. It's cool to see an 80 year old man jump up and down like a little kid. lol
 
Professor Fate said:
I'll add my own two cents to this.
Normal order of events:
1.) Buy project car, have big wide-eyed dreams of big hairy burnouts and jumping rivers just like the General Lee.
2.) Find a crusty 360 on marketplace and haul it down to the machine shop and tell them to build you the biggest, baddest stroker imaginable. Wait one year, seven months before retrieving a motor that went over budget by about four grand.
3.) Five years later, after finally paying off the home equity loan you took out to pay for the engine, you find out it isn't going to bolt in to your car... waddaya mean the slant six transmission won't fit a 360??
4.) Two more years of chasing parts, and you decide the car looks kinda ratty to put that nice engine into... off to the body shop.
5.) Two years and another home equity loan later, the body is back in your garage. You slide the motor out from the corner and put it in front of the car, and make vroom vroom noises. Over the course of the next year you put the engine in and out of the car 3 times getting everything to fit and finding those last bits you need...
6.) Ten years after the motor was built and every ounce of assembly lube has oozed out, the cam break-in lube has turned to feldspar, and a colony of field mice have set up housekeeping in your intake manifold; you fire it up- hmmm, that doesn't sound good. Uh-oh, the oil pan is full of babbit and metal shavings. Out the engine comes, and tear it down- eeww, the cam is flat and the metal must have taken out the bearings... my cousin said all new lifters are bad so that must have been it.
7.) Get pissed off and sell the whole mess on marketplace for about .05 on the dollar and go online and tell everybody how crappy XYZ's cams are.
Moral of the story: Get the rest of the car in shape and build the engine last, not first.
Rant over.

To the OP's question- most all of the major manufacturers have quality offerings; yes, I keep hearing this and that about Comp Cams, but have not personally run one of theirs in a looong time so I don't know. Isky, Howards, Racer Brown, Lunati and Bullet (among others) all have solid reputations around here, so pick your grind and break it in correctly and you should be fine.
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Are we talking about Dan?
 
Rapid Robert said:
my next hobby stock car 360 engine flat tappet hyd cam. with all the hyd cam breakin failures is there a brand that will give me slightly better odds of a sucessfull breakin? (along with all the proper preperations of course). I've heard good regarding Howards. & should I have it nitrided? thank you for your time. RR
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Go Roller no break-in required and you don't need to run special oil. I have a hydraulic roller in my 440 and it runs perfect, and I run 10W30 oil, you don't need any special additives. I got mine from Scott Brown @ Competition Components, great guy and he will steer you the right way to go.
 
unfortunately in this circle track class rollers are not allowed. I do have some Johnson lifters from Hughes. RR
 
also, tell me you're gonna run this cam: DODGE Howards Cams 712901-12 Howards Cams Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshafts | Summit Racing
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undecided on a cam. someone (on here) had priorly suggested 718041-09. RPM range 2300-6000. intake dur at .050 235. ex duration at .050 243. advertized intake duration 289. advertized exhaust duration 297. intake lift .488". exhaust lift .480" lobe seperation 109. it is a 63 dart stock car on a 1/3 mile high banked dirt track. 360/904/5:57 8&3/4. I ain't a cam guy so these are just numbers to me. EDIT that cams' specs say "circle track height rule only", not sure what that means. also a 7K rev limiter is required (tho I dont wanna get anywhere near that) and I almost forgot, the required CR is 9-1 max and will be running EQ heads with the 1.6 ratio
 
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Rapid Robert said:
undecided on a cam. someone (on here) had priorly suggested 718041-09. RPM range 2300-6000. intake dur at .050 235. ex duration at .050 243. advertized intake duration 289. advertized exhaust duration 297. intake lift .488". exhaust lift .480" lobe seperation 109. it is a 63 dart stock car on a 1/3 mile high banked dirt track. 360/904/5:57 8&3/4. I ain't a cam guy so these are just numbers to me. EDIT that cams' specs say "circle track height rule only", not sure what that means. also a 7K rev limiter is required (tho I dont wanna get anywhere near that) and I almost forgot, the required CR is 9-1 max and will be running EQ heads with the 1.6 ratio
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i was somewhat joking about using the cam that i recommended.

given that you have to work within the parameters of the rule book, you'll want to do two things. first figure out what kind of speeds you'll be running, or need to run. then tailor your gearing/tires and chassis to that. with that locked in, then you can sort out the engine on how and where you want to make the power.

i understand that you're hemmed in by the rules: 9:1 comp, 2bbl carb (i'm guessing), and likely you're limited to a max lift.

provide as much information as you can and we can likely put our collective heads together and get something that's at least close to decent!
 
given that you have to work within the parameters of the rule book, you'll want to do two things. first figure out what kind of speeds you'll be running, or need to run. then tailor your gearing/tires and chassis to that. with that locked in, then you can sort out the engine on how and where you want to make the power.

i understand that you're hemmed in by the rules: 9:1 comp, 2bbl carb (i'm guessing), and likely you're limited to a max lift.

provide as much information as you can and we can likely put our collective heads together and get something that's at least close to decent!
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Good comprehensive advice/info! & very much appreciated. JYH I will take your advice & note that info when the season starts next April. I do have the 718041-09 cam & someone had priorly suggested another one but Summit would not let me exchange it even with it still unopened (said it had been too long since purchase). yes 2bbl carb & no max lift limit. should I have the cam nitrided?
 
I've run a Comp Cams solid flat tappet in my built 73 Sport for 5 years with no issues. As others have said, proper and timely break-in is critical. No shortcuts. And proper oil from then on. I'm running Amsoil with ZDDP and absolutely no problems.
 
Yeah can greatly increase chances of success.
before you bolt the top on, paint a white line on each pushrod in a position you can see
slime the lifters and cam lobes with assembly lube.
with the plugs out turn the motor over the correct way with a big breaker
get 20 or 30 revolutions on it
if your pushrods have turned, you know your lifters have turned.
if the lifters have turned no matter how crap they may be they will not hit the lobe repeatedly in the same place, giving the ZDDP a fighting chance of plating on properly and protecting that area of the lifter base that was hit first, for the next time it is hit.
if they don't ever turn, you have a problem, a cam wipe problem. they will wear exceedingly quickly. very quick when new less quick when used...but quick....

if you put in too much ZDDP not only will it plate the lifter base it will plate the sides and the internals.
you will end up with lifters that could stop rotating as much as they did, they are now fatter than they were, in a narrower bore in the block.....
You could end up with lifters that don't pump up as quickly as they should due to the piston and bore inside now being plated, the bore is smaller and the piston is thicker than it was.
1300-1600 PPM is enough and ideally in the oil from the start not an additive bottle that could mess up the chemistry of the rest of the oil.
just get the right oil in the first place pay once not twice.

the bad lifter, bad cam problem is a problem,
but the reporting thereof is polluted with a million and one other things that could cause the issue...but its always crap cam and lifters that get the blame. when you see a report on this, who built the engine, will give you an indication of if it was really a case of crap lifters made from crap material or machined badly. or maybe it was something else

Putting two bottles of ZDDP additive into a 1600 PPM ZDDP oil is not the way....but you may find people who do just that, and then of course they join the masses, who say their failure was caused by crap lifters :)

the ZDDP plating is a chemical reaction you can't stop it, it actually makes surfaces much rougher, removing that roughness each cycle helps the underlying steel to work harden. ZDDP doesn't lubricate at all, think of it like velvet that has its fibres smashed off and replaced time and time gain, the base layer needs to stay in place.

but like spray painting or chrome plating a great fat thick coating just flakes off, too much roughness and not enough proportion of the total of it as a base layer. You need just the right amount laid down in the thinnest of thin layers

Dave
 
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i don't know much about the best cam for quality but my favorite cam was a Cam Motion solid flat tappet grind . i'm still using it 15 years later so the quality must be half decent .
 
I would go roller if you want a cam that needs higher spring rates. I did this in my 408 stroker. It was an impressive engine. For my latest stock 340 build I used an Oregon flat tappet cam.
 
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