"Old School" Stocker Cams

[Dave Gantz]

Originally Posted by Greg Reimer 7376

Maybe, that could explain why so many small block Chevy cams went flat all through the '70s and 80's. It's also a possibility that a cam vendor had problems with quality control that caused a lot of problems. Seems to me that some Ford engines in the late '50's and early '60's had a bunch of issues like that, too.

It wouldn't surprise me if Chevy tried to save a penny or two by changing the "recipe" of the steel or iron that the cams were made from. The vendors only adhered to the provided spec. Short term quality problems were more likely a vendor issue.
I say this from my experience working at a vendor that provided tooling and stampings for the big three. We would order steel that was to the customers spec ("recipe"), and it was checked by QC. It would then rust through in a few years until Japanese competition magically made UAW stuff better (late 80's,early 90's). If there was a vendor QC issue, we worked to get it back to the customer's standard, whatever that may have been.

[Paul Precht]

Originally Posted by Dave Gantz

It wouldn't surprise me if Chevy tried to save a penny or two by changing the "recipe" of the steel or iron that the cams were made from. The vendors only adhered to the provided spec. Short term quality problems were more likely a vendor issue.
I say this from my experience working at a vendor that provided tooling and stampings for the big three. We would order steel that was to the customers spec ("recipe"), and it was checked by QC. It would then rust through in a few years until Japanese competition magically made UAW stuff better (late 80's,early 90's). If there was a vendor QC issue, we worked to get it back to the customer's standard, whatever that may have been.

The Chevy blocks, cams and lifters were all soft and brittle iron back in the 60s and 70s. The cams didn't have the large oil drain back area the Mopars had directly over the lobes nor the larger lifters and with the rocker/stud setup always loosening up they didn't last long. Back in 72 I rebuilt a 65 283 for a friends 62 Corvette and a 60 413 for myself. After removing the 283 cam which was missing a few lobes, I threw it up in the air on the asphalt road and it broke into about 50 pieces. I did the same with the 413 cam but it just bounced around without a break, I then at 17 yo using a good amount of force took it over the concrete curb with my hands and whacked it at least 20 times and couldn't even break it in half, the only way that 413 cam was coming apart was with a saw or a torch.

[GTX JOHN]

Originally Posted by Paul Precht

The Chevy blocks, cams and lifters were all soft and brittle iron back in the 60s and 70s. The cams didn't have the large oil drain back area the Mopars had directly over the lobes nor the larger lifters and with the rocker/stud setup always loosening up they didn't last long. Back in 72 I rebuilt a 65 283 for a friends 62 Corvette and a 60 413 for myself. After removing the 283 cam which was missing a few lobes, I threw it up in the air on the asphalt road and it broke into about 50 pieces. I did the same with the 413 cam but it just bounced around without a break, I then at 17 yo using a good amount of force took it over the concrete curb with my hands and whacked it at least 20 times and couldn't even break it in half, the only way that 413 cam was coming apart was with a saw or a torch.

The Mopar had a much better camshaft core (Stamped CWC on the
cam ) with much better service life!

[Greg Reimer 7376]

We received new camshafts back in the day in a cardboard tube with the GM logo and part number on them. Once in a while, we would open the tube and find the camshaft was broken in two right in the package. Also, dropping a camshaft was a real sure fire way to break it. If one rolled off a workbench and hit the ground it was usually done for as well. When Chevy went to the steel hydraulic roller cams, that ended a multiplicity of problems. Actually, a flat tappet camshaft was kind of antique technology even a long time ago.