Everyone thinking about a cam change:
Anyone thinking about a cam and valve spring change, a couple of words of
caution. On the Magnum engines, the valves utilize locks set up for a round
groove, not your standard square groove locks. Make sure you get the correct
ones. Additionally, the standard installed height for the springs is 1.650.
Most of the cam grinders out there generally adhere to this, the one
exception that I have found is Crower. Their spring installed height is
1.700, this is actually a good thing because there is a greater distance for
the spring to compress until you get coil bind. If you decide to utilize the
Crower valve components, the retainer that they list for the Magnum engine (
Part # 87047) is incorrect. This retainer will not give you the correct
installed height. If you try to use this retainer, you end up with an
installed height that is around 1.400 (not good). Call and get the correct
retainer. On the subject of cam selection, most people don't know this, but
the only company that I have been able to find that uses new cam blanks is
Crane (they do have custom grinds). Mopar Performance has new cams because
they purchase their cams from Crane. To my best knowledge, everyone else
just re-grinds factory cams. This could potentially be a problem if the
grind itself gets below the surface hardness of the factory cam. Something
to think about.....
Frank
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:14:27 EDT