History Camshaft nicknames, history, and rare parts

Now that Crower is one Killer Camshaft.

 

Yep.

 

First cam we ever installed in HS was an Owens Orbit. The guy had a shop near Howard's and reground cast stockers to be a little bigger. Might be called a mild RV today.

How about Isky's Mile-A-More... It was pretty much a stock cam with 8* advance ground in. It could pull like nothing I had ever had in my 3/4 ton Chev pickup towing with a cabover camper on top. Top RPM was right at 4000.

 

Jimmy... Wasn't Isky's 'Mile-A-More' the cam that was "for the good of the country"?
The accompanying decal had a short Isky caricature standing with the famous cigar in teeth, holding a copy of the Magna Carta, or Bill of Rights... Under the Isky pic was the legend: "The Camfather"

 

Seems a good spot to tell a cam story; I grew up in Miami/Coconut Grove Fla. from 1942 on,we had a lot of super hot shoe racers n builders here . In the 50s I was at Firestone tire, talking to Bobby Johns,his dad,Shorty Johns was making a lot of sparks on a grinder with a cam in his hands. I asked Bobby what was he doing?; Making another race cam for his midgit{v8 60},now looking close at what was going on. Shorty was doing one lobe at a time,grinding off the base/bottom of lobe an matiching it too fit a little homemade templit he had by the grinder by eye. Come to find out,he would then retard cam timing 6* from stock with the higher lift from grinding it. Now thats some old school low $ stuff,Shorty Johns was hot racer,an his son Bobby Johns was very hot too,did lots of local tracks,but went on to run Indy an Daytona etc. as well.

 

Dana... Isn't that one called a 'Short Grind'?

 

Isky 505 Magnum,
550 Super Legerra,
555 Invincible,
600 Torquemaster

 

Roothawg,
I also have a Crower 90R, did you ever get any specs on it?

 

I found the 90R online- 304* duration, .480 lift, overlap 84*, lash .018 cold.
In O 42* BTDC
In C 82* ABDC
Ex O 82* BBDC
Ex C 42* ATDC

 

I had a solid lift isky 555 in a 383 Mopar in my 31 roadster. One brutal son of a bitch

 

That's amazing....

 

Said 555 isky in action...can just barely see the orange sticker on the windshield

 

Bump Stick for me too ! If you don't believe me bigger the better ask Joe The Grinder !

 

CROWER cams ground me a one off cam back in 66 and called it a Oscar grind (you know the drive in burger joints) it was meant to shake the fenders, and not much more. It did have a sweet idle sound and not much more ...lol.

 

In high school about 1971/72, my classmates older brother had a '70 AAR Cuda, bright orange, black accents, Cragars on big sportscar specials on the back, quite a peacock.
That wasn't enough, the 340/6 pack had a real nasty Sig Erson cam in it and with an automatic and stock converter the thing was nearly unmanageable on the street.
Didn't matter, we thought it was the baddest thing on four wheels.

 

Even tho I've been using Howard's cams since 1976 in all my GMC 6's I was glad I didn't use them in the 50's when they were so radical for that time and Howard wasn't to keen on "setting" a valve back because they had such steep closing ramps the valves slammed shut and in a short time broke the heads off. Ahhh the good old days..

 

Mike, Do you want another one ? Blackie ran an Isky 404a, radius tappet, in the "Shish Kebob"!

 

]Anybody remember who ground the Short Bigelow and the Long Bigelow? It was a Jimmy six cam.[/QUOTE]


I'll take a shot - Howard Johannson. Tommy Bigelow was a race driver, but I have NO idea what or where he raced. Tommy was mentioned in California Bill's (Fisher) gray book, came into Howard's while the were on the dyno with a Chevy 216 testing cams and intakes.

 

I thought the OP wanted people's slang nicknames for various cams, not the manufacturers names (interesting and amusing as they were)

 

Tom Bigelow raced in everything from midgets to champ cars, in USAC. Quite a character.
Here are a couple for the Offy fans, Winfield #4, and #5.

 

Man I haven't seen one of those in ages! If I remember correctly, .509" lift, 294 degree duration, 110 degree lobe separation? That was a pretty popular cam back in the day.

 

Worked for Wolverine Gear back in the 60s. Wolverine sold timing gears, pushrods, lifters, timing chains, lifters and cams. We tried to make it simple so as not to confuse. We had street, three quarter and full race cams. Later their cams became known as Blue Racer a play on the snake common to Southern Michigan. Wolverine was bought out by Crane probably to eliminate the competition as they were closed not too long after.

 

Here's a thread i started on pretty much the same subject.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/camshaft-names.952298/

 

My first cam Owens also. Cam is from the middle '60's and ran well. Kept this memento. Getting a little faded though.

 

This is a fun read.Please keep posting.Where I grew up we used to call the Duntov 30/30 a Winchester.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

at least someone understood, but I'm still enjoying everyone's comments. No harm/no fowl

 

What cam is the 'scalded dog' you were talking about?

 

I think it was for a model a four banger.

 

Beaner mentioned the Crane "fireball",Sifton had the "sidekick" the "shotgun" the "super eliminator" the "barracuda".Dana I once drove from Daytona to Hallandale to get Harvey Crane to fix a cam for a guys Velocette "venom veeline thruxton".

 

I ran an .008 and .018 as we used to call it but it never delivered much lift.
Later switched to a .030 / .030. When my engine hit 3 grand it was time for some serious shit to happen.
Always admired Isky's Super Le Gerra and his 505. His ads in the middle 60's through the 80's were epic.


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