Wow, First time I have posted in a long time but, if you want the right information The HAMB is where you come. So with that said could do with a little help identifying the Cam taken out of my friends 350 earlier today. Why do I need to identify it? Good question! Mainly because it has a broken valve spring, that valve has a mushroomed valve stem (and may possibly be bent) and the timing marks are waaaaayyyyy out of sync. The cam itself is undamaged, the lifters are good and the pushrods are straight. So, the need to identify it is to ensure that the correct valve springs are procured and the mystery of the off timing marks can be solved. What are the markings on the cam then Paul? Glad you asked - This is what is cast into the cam EP6 30 D8 C8 C5 CWC There is also Blue and Purple paint on the distributor drive end of the cam and a 2 white spots half way down. On the distributor end there is also an A cast into the shaft. Other than that there are no marking or casting number. I 'think' that it is a Chevy cam rather than an after market item but happy to be proved wrong. So, what does the panel think? P.
Chevy part numbers are a lot longer than two digits. It's probably aftermarket. I would just measure the lobe lift of the cam, compare it to lobe lift on some other cams in a catalog, and that will give you a very good idea how much valve spring you need.
'Would help if you put the cam dot in line with the crank gear. That triangle is "advance", so unless it were installed advanced, it wouldn't line up with the cam dot anyway. Find the dot on the crank gear and put it at the 12 O-clock position.
Edit: just re-read your post, info "cast" into the cam isnt gonna help you id the cam, just the blank its ground on. You should be looking for info STAMPED on the end of the cam, thats whats going to give you an id.
Correct on the alignment or timing. Note the 3 different keyway slots. Don't quote me on this but I think the usual differences are 2deg advanced, "straight up" or 2deg retarded. Advanced means it "runs out of cam" sooner, retarded means it "comes on the cam" later. And yes, the numbers stamped into the nose of the cam under the drive gear are the ones you need. You might get even luckier and see the cam manufacturer's logo as well.
As always the Hamb never fails to amaze me with the knowledge that the members have. Squirrel, was hoping you would see this and pipe in. So, for clarity, there are no markings on the snout of the cam (the surface behind the cam gear). There are the paint marks as previously stated, from looking on the web I 'think' this could be an L88 cam, the engine is a 4 bolt main and it has double hump heads. Corvette? Highlander, thanks for the reminder on the crank gear positions. TL there are 3 'marks' on the crank gear. Triangle, square and heart (could be a circle) None of the 3 coincide with dot on the cam gear, yes I did turn the engine over twice. The only markings on the distributor end of the cam is an A stamped into the face of the cam. The engine has definitely been rebuilt previously, block has been decked, it has a +30 overbore with the cross hatching very visible, new brass freeze plugs, new oil plugs, oil pump, you get the picture. I didn't drive the truck the engine was in but was told that it was...OK... reason for the tear down was using a lot of oil and low compression on No 1 (both wet and dry). Think we have found the problem for the excessive oil use, lack of valve stem oil seals on exhausts, and a build up of carbon under the exhaust valve on No.1 giving a bad seal against valve seat. Upon disassembly the whole engine smelt of burnt oil and the heads and pistons had a heavy coating of oily carbon. I can see myself measuring the lift to get the numbers unless the additional info can shed any light! I think, if it was my engine, I would stick a Comp Cams 264 in it and call it done. But its not so... Any info greatly appreciated. P.
Paul, the L88 designation is for the factory high performance 427 big block engine. When you say "double hump", do you meen the pre 69 style "camel hump" castings or the accessory bolt style castings with the two small bumps.
The L-88 cam has the long part number stamped on the back end of it, it's one of the few high performance Chevy cams I've held in my grimy mitts and yeah, you must have meant L-79 or LT-1 or L-82 or something, since you are working on a small block. After you get done measuring, let us know what you find...
Doh! L- 82 was what I meant, apologies. The heads are the pre 69 Camel Hump heads, there are no accessory bolt holes. Will be a week or so until I have the time to get over to measure the cam, will report back on my findings. Thanks again. P.
That's a real problem, because one tooth is something like 16 degrees, and yours looks like several teeth off. I can totally see pistons hitting valves.
Purely for ID purposes and parts gathering: If it truly is a 350 and the block and heads are OEM married together, then this would be a 67 or 68 only engine. Most important reason to correctly ID the engine is to get the correct lower end bearings due to different crankshaft main journal diameters.
CWC is an aftermarket cam and EP6 is a cam blank used for stock and small duration grinds ,bigger grinds are normally on EP1, EP1HC or EP1-55
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