What the @#$% is an RV CAM anyway??

My brother had a Crane RV cam in a '68 or so Chevy C20. It turned out to be a great street cam for him with the 327 and small fuelie heads.

 

Most guys over cam an engine just like carburetors. The phrase “more and bigger is better” fits this. The RV cam for the most part was for class C motor homes and 3/4 ton pickups with 8-10 foot cab over campers with “sick” engines being used in the mid 70’s as it really woke smog engines up.
The term today doesn’t mean a lot other than a cam with “advertised” duration from 252* to 268* intake duration. They are best install with a few degree advanced and really are good street driven not racing cams.

 

This thing was set up just right. Enough CR behind it, IIRC it had a nice Qjet on it with headers. 4-speed granny gear transmission. He had another similar truck less the cam that he would street race now and then.

 

As I kinda remember when 2 guys raced identical stock cars one was always better. Any rear gear gave immediate results and a few with stock mid 50’s cars figured this out quickly. But if they were stock with the same parts what was the difference?
What I heard from my dad was not every part was exactly the same. In manufacturing there were accepted tolerances and one was where the keyway in the crank, usually, or cam if one was used same with the crank gear (or cam gear) for the broached groove. It sometimes was when the fixture was warn and soon to be replaced that advanced or retarded cam engines got assembled.
If you happened to buy a car with an advanced cam you got a winner and didn’t know why. Early cam grinders like Winfield did and others follow by making “stock” racing cams undetectable when measured. It also didn’t take long to figure out how to move one with just taking the minimum off an engine.
RV cams were never big and came in a era of government intervention making 350” and bigger engines having 175 hp where 300 once was. A simple change to the street knowledge guy was all that was needed. I remember when my wifes OT Monte needed a timing chain change and an advance kit was add to the new cam gear. Suddenly there was a new car in the garage that could smoke the tires and still pass smog testing every 2 years.

 

For the stock cars, we got re-grinds from Chet Herbert. I still have one new on the shelf for a SBC. He ground up "cheater" cams for us. They met the lift rule, yet had a smooth idle. I felt that they performed as well as the more radical sounding cams others ran.

 

Chet was really good at doing that. His shop was close to me in Anaheim when I moved to OC in 1971. I purchased a lot of speed parts from him before the internet. Way better to work with than “Super Shop” at the time.

 

Vehicle terminology varies from region to region and from time back to now! I still use some them! I put an RV cam in one of my trucks thirty years ago! It also has a stall torque converter! How much? I can’t remember! So I just tell people it has a stall converter in it!
But back in the day, I remember men talking about a 3/4 race cam….I knew they meant a cam a little “ hotter” than stock vs a full race cam….real hot!
Then there was the time folks put “ mags” on their car! But none of those wheels were magnesium ! Well maybe a few!
It ‘s just terminology!
But we do have ENGINES in our cars…..not motors!








Bones

 

I had gone to his shop in either 1984 or 1986, he had some real archaic cam grinding equipment but it all worked. I never knew he was in a wheel chair until that day. He took out time to talk for a bit.

 

I agree! But just like when you say “ I’ve got a cam in it” it means you have a camshaft that is different than stock. Same when people say I’ve got a stall converter in it! It means they have usually a higher that stock stall converter in it! If you are like me and have many cars, I can’t always remember the specs of every part in every car! Plus the ones I don’t have any more! So, for me, lots of times I will use these generic terms, mainly so I don’t tell someone the wrong specs , by getting it confused with another vehicle! Just my way!




Bones

 

When someone asked me if the car I was driving "had a cam in it", I said, "It must...I drove it here".