Is a Cam really worth it

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Slum Lord
Daily Driver/weekend warrior.

I've read a lot of threads on here about cams. I've read both Negative and Positive things.

But the amount of guys pulling aftermarket Cams with the lobes worn down has me questioning if the performance gain is worth the cost/reliability?


Discuss.
 
For what it's worth, we have been running a Scheid drop in street cam for four years in two different 24v pulling/street setups. I pulled it out and put it in my brothers 12v street puller and it works great. It still looked perfect. When my big Scheid can broke last year we pulled my motor, pulled his motor, put my 13mm pump on it and put it in my truck to finish the season. I'd say that is worth it.

Also have a buddy the runs a Scheid cam with a 13mm pump for two years driving, snow plowing and sled pulling. It runs like a champ. Also we have some Hamilton big sticks, Powerparts Eng street cams that have been trouble free so far. We had a enterprise cam in a buddies truck that wiped a lobe but it was used in bill heyens pulling truck and then put in bryces.

That's what I can offer for info.
 
I posted a dyno graph comparison a year or 2 ago showing an area under the curve comparison between 2 aftermarket cams. The difference is pretty dramatic in the mid range with one of the cams making more power all the way from start to finish. At points low rpm power was up by as much as 150 hp due to spooling up the chargers better. I'm on my 4th aftermarket cam and only 1 of the previous cams had a wear/galling issue. It was a billet cam and the problem was probably due to poor heat treat or metal choice.
 
I ran a Haisley street/puller cam in my CR for approx. 50K miles and never used special engine oil additives. I pulled it and sold it...the lobes looked perfect.
 
kalder said:
How many miles did you put on those cams, Ron?
Click to expand...

The most I've put on any one aftermarket cam has been 35k miles. All except the 1 have looked new when taken out. Not alot of miles for sure, but if there was going to be a problem, it would have probably shown signs by that point.
 
Just put an aftermarket one in my truck. The spool and lower egts tell me YES, it is worth it. Trailer towing is a pleasure now.
 
Just who's cam's have been going limp? Not real interested in filling the crankcase full of crap after that Spartan chit it's self.
 
LReiff said:
I ran a Haisley street/puller cam in my CR for approx. 50K miles and never used special engine oil additives. I pulled it and sold it...the lobes looked perfect.
Click to expand...

Take into consideration this was approx 5 years ago that I installed this cam.
Stock valve springs... @ 575 rwhp. max egt dropped 150* just from the cam swap. Definitely worth it!
 
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look at teddybears thread on his teardown of his sled puller.

I would go with stock, and be able to sleep at night, and not have nightmares.
 
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Wonder if Greg has any input on this?
 
Teddybear's thread the main reason I'm posting this. I know he had a Cam that turned into scrap metal with little to no time on it. I want to know if the improvement is worth the risk. I would be pissed if I had to replace a Cam after a Couple of oil changes. $.02
 
Ive been running my hamilton big stick for a little over 90k , i broke it in with added zinc and the next 2 oil changes also used zinc than after that just regular oil . Im in the process of building a short block that will hopefully be done this month or next. Im curious
as to what its gonna look like! Ive checked - relashed valves a few times and nothing has been out of spec.
Also in a dd scenario its def. wort it!
 
My maxspool will be coming out in the next month due to a cracked block. Been running it for almost 2 years so we will see. Im also running F1 valve springs
 
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