Phil dunno either bro

I suppose we all favor certain brands, especially those we have acquaintances/friends at.

As far as telling.. really.. I dont think I should.. lest the people who are kind enough to be my mentors decide to stop telling me whatever I ask & showing me things. I shouldn't have said anything.. it really doesnt matter. D'oh, I know that sounds bad.. need to learn to quietly say things in my head before speaking, juuust like we talked about, lol. FWIW.. in the cup engines our heads have gone on... most of those had grinds from comp . I just like those cool hard tubes they send $1500 camshafts in instead of the chincy boxes they pack the things I can afford in

Mast, you can get a relative idea of what's faster if you have consistent reference points.. I'd call and ask if anyone can tell you numbers at .006/.020 etc.

EDIT: argh, typo

 

All depends on who you talk to. Ask Jim Oddy and he'll tell you to go with Isky, David Reher has his own opinion, as does Kenny Duttweiler, Scott Schafiroff, Joe Sherman etc..
So what's the point?
They've all had some degree of success with one or many different cam manufacturers. Nascar.... only one of a million motorsports.

Chuck Riddeck

 

Yeah, everone picks different people. Joe Sherman knows Isky really well, and he does very well with them. Hell he's got a good name in CA, and it's going to grow I have a feeling. Can't say why, but that old boy can build an engine. He does get good help though.

Bret

 

I personally have always really liked using Isky or Crower cams. I feel that generally the quality control is better at those companies than most others, and in general people are more willing to go the extra mile for you.
Isky is very fast, if you need a custom grind shipped tomorrow, they'll make it happen. Keep in mind also, Isky is the oldest (or one of the oldest) custom cam manufacturers in the country... make no mistake they have all the knowledge and R&D abilities as Comp.
Crower is great for their tech service, Dave Crower will spend hours on the phone with you working out a custom grind based on whatever you need. The man is VERY smart and listens to what you need. I also belive that Crower uses better materials than ANYONE else in the cam business. Again this is a old company that has broken a lot of ground in the Hi-performance market... don't doubt their R&D dept for a second.

 

In my experience timing the cams in my (2 valve) motorcycle engine, going to a higher number on the intake center weakened the low rpm power. The manufacturer specified intake center at 107.5 and when I went to 110 the powerband became much "cammier".

 

Sherman is quite a character... I've actually talked to him a few times. He's admitadly old school and that's nothing but good in my book. Make it inexpensive, turn as many rpm as you can with it (cause that's the only way to achieve high hp/cid #s) and gear the wee out of it.
At 60+ years old, Joe's got a bit of seasoning to him. It's often times tough to beat experience... savvy will only go so far. I've learned that you're often times better off learning from a guy like Joe than trying to beat him.

Joe likes Isky, likes big cams too.... goes hand in hand with his "spin it and gear it" philosophy.
Personally, I've used Isky, Crower, Comp, Kent, Reed, Ultradyne, Elgin, Erson, Crane.. you name it.
One thing I know is that there are some really good grinds from all of these companies. Sometimes they just get it right! I have my personal favorites which seem to always fit the application at hand almost perfectly. I'm not bias in that regard although I do check ever cam I test for straightness, hardness and lobe phase. If it's out of spec, I simply send it back. They all let something through the QC at times.
Just my personal experience FWIW.

Take care,
Chuck Riddeck

 

Chuck,

The problem is, I didn't have a choice we were in the same contest. Good thing is he couldn't spin it too high since the RPM level was limited! Either way, I give the guy the respect he deserves but I have no problem racing him, hell I hope he enters next year!

Bret

 

Hope you didn't take that the wrong way Bret. Just trying to humor the discussion a little... which I admit to being extremely poor at.

I'm not up on the rules of this "contest". Is there a rules list somewhere on the net?

A competetitive spirit is always a good thing, that's what keeps us pushing harder. Hey, there's always next year. Maybe I should look into this??

Take care,
Chuck Riddeck

 

Chuck,

Check your Private messages. No I didn't take it the wrong way, don't worry.

Next year is big blocks! The power, cubes and prices go up! The problem is that the rules have never been posted publicly, and the magazine readers need to know them. Basicly, throw out race parts, soild rollers, sheetmetal intakes and the such and run it on 92 Octane. It's a street engine challenge, but who buys a 365cube street engine for $17,000? It's a very driveable race engine, that's all!

Bret

 

"Engine Masters" Final Round Results:
http://www.enginemasters.com/rounduf.shtml

1st Round Results:
http://www.enginemasters.com/round1.shtml

You'll also see the "Rules Guide" link at the top of those pages. Interesting.

-Mindgame

 

Finally, I forgot those rules where there.

Yeah, my numbers that were posted were from a warm up run with no oil pressure. I yanked the engine to keep it from eating the bearings since you can't fix it once it's there. The contest is interesting. I'm a little pissed because my engine was worth 880+average at least! My guess was 900 or so, and that's with out coatings. The top guy had 903 with a ton of coatings! I am taking it back to the site soon to do another offical dyno to get the results just so I know what it could do. I told Parkhurst before it ran it would run a 885. The highest number out west at that time was a 882. Dam, Without coatings it was a 2nd or 3rd place engine. This really gets me now.

I just checked out those results! OH MY GOD! Tim Bartholomew went from 795 average to 872! and he was at our site. (a 9.7% difference!) That's funny because he was a Super funny guy. We had a conversation about our engines before they ran just between us. I had him by like 20-30hp. He just told his boys "we might as well pack up and go home, Bret wouped us!" I wasn't blowing smoke us his *** either. Everyone did a little better but those numbers are sick in comparison. The east cost guys were anywhere from 7-10% higher in CA!

Oh well it happens. I getting ready for the Big Block shootout next year. 1200+ is the average next year with most likely 468 cube Big Blocks. Yes it will be a Chevy.

I'm still stunned how westech had such hig numbers. The other sites increase at least 6% or more! that's crazy. They tried to get all the dynos to test the same. Which obviously didn't work.

Oh well. At least I can talk about that now. The first day I got back to the shop after the qualifing rounds I was determined to win the next one. I wish that she didn't lose oil pressure and had worked with Swain, I'm almost confident that I would have pulled a 920 then. I didn't do that so I can't say that either.

Anyways. I'm going to bed pissed off about that.

Late,

Bret