Lunati released custom cam profiles from retired racers

[In-Tech]

I think Howards and Bullet have the Brookshire stuff. Not sure how it's divided.

[GARY C]

They look like pretty aggressive lobes for old cams.

[cgarb]

They very well could be aggressive lobes. Say If I was involved with a large race team and I designed a lobe. We design a camshaft, had it ground, we test the lobes, it breaks valvetrain all to hell and you scrap the cam. The lobe still sits there in Lunati's inventory. After a while they call and ask "Do you care if we release these lobes to the public?"...sure have at it.

[GARY C]

Considering most performance parts we buy have come about by past racing technology there is no telling whats out there.

[statsystems]

They very well could be aggressive lobes. Say If I was involved with a large race team and I designed a lobe. We design a camshaft, had it ground, we test the lobes, it breaks valvetrain all to hell and you scrap the cam. The lobe still sits there in Lunati's inventory. After a while they call and ask "Do you care if we release these lobes to the public?"...sure have at it.

That's why I stopped trying to design my own lobes. They looked good on paper but beat the hell out of everything.

[CamKing]

^^^^^Which would be a good question for Mike. Do certain race teams get different better cams than the average guy? Say a small fish wants to try and run with the big boys, and, you do cams for the big boys, does the little guy get the same cam? Just curious. I am guessing no. The reason the big boys are faster usually, isn't just from the cam, but about 40 other reasons.

When a team pays me to design a cam for their engine combination, I do not sell it to anyone else, until they no longer have a use for it. If their competition calls me to design a cam for their engine combination, it will be designed around the information they share with me, and won't be the same design as anyone else's . I don't care if it's a big team, or a small team. I design the best lobe I can, based on the data I'm given. The advantage the bigteam has is, they normally have more data to give me. In a couple instances, I did exclusive designs for free, in return for running my decals(Scott Bloomquist, Jac Haudenschild). In these cases, it didn't really matter, that I couldn't sell the same designs to their competition, because they're driving styles were so different, any other driver would have hated their cams. Only once have I done a fully exclusive deal, where my customer had full control over what I sold to their competitors, but that was in IndyCar, and they about bought me a house.

[CamKing]

They very well could be aggressive lobes. Say If I was involved with a large race team and I designed a lobe. We design a camshaft, had it ground, we test the lobes, it breaks valvetrain all to hell and you scrap the cam. The lobe still sits there in Lunati's inventory. After a while they call and ask "Do you care if we release these lobes to the public?"...sure have at it.

They don't even look aggressive.
Compare their 2nd flat tappet with my most popular and proven 2bbl cam that we run with stock size springs.
My cam: 270/274@.020", 248/252@.050", .538"/.538" Valve Lift w/1.5 rockers.

Compare their 2nd roller cam with a 2 year old sprint car cam design of mine.
My cam: 292/296@.020", 264/268@.050", .720"/.720" Valve Lift w/1.5 rockers.

There's nothing in their specs that would suggest those cams would be competitive today.

[greg]

i run a 50140 lunati from the 80,s,it werks great,an afr 220 heads,pre eliminator heads won 4 class championships,an still winning.....an why wud a bracket racer give a hoot,,,,3500 # 55 chevy,406...10.40 127 ,,,,jus win races

[CamKing]

i run a 50140 lunati from the 80,s,it werks great,an afr 220 heads,pre eliminator heads won 4 class championships,an still winning.....an why wud a bracket racer give a hoot,,,,3500 # 55 chevy,406...10.40 127 ,,,,jus win races

That's the great thing about bracket racing. You can be 40hp from optimum, and it doesn't really matter. You just need reliability, and repeatability.

That all goes out the window when you have to race in a class where all engines have to be built within a very tight set of rules.

[andyf]

I don't have any problem at all using "old" lobe designs. What I've found out over the years is that some lobes work really well with certain types of valve trains. For example, if you are building a modest budget engine then an older lobe is probably what you want since you are not going to be using big pushrods and super still rocker arms. If you are going state of the art with high dollar parts everywhere then the newest fast rate lobe will probably give you a little more power.

The old Mopar 0.528 solid flat tappet cam is the best cam I've ever tested when used in a mild street big block with full exhaust. The modern fast rate cams don't work as well. Not exactly sure why but most likely it has to do with an interaction of the fast rate valve lift and exhaust dilution or something. I've tried fast rate cams from various vendors and then pulled them back out and put the old school .528 back in.

I also use an old Ultradyne roller lobe on a lot of street engines in the 600 to 700 hp range. Not sure what it is but something about that Ultradyne lobe lets the engine sound really smooth and mellow at idle but it makes excellent torque and good power up to 6500 rpm. The newest high speed lobes will make a little more peak power but they give up torque and idle quality. I've run tons of dyno tests over the years and just keep coming back to that old Ultradyne intake lobe whenever I need a cam for a guy who wants a street driver that runs 10's.

[statsystems]

I don't have any problem at all using "old" lobe designs. What I've found out over the years is that some lobes work really well with certain types of valve trains. For example, if you are building a modest budget engine then an older lobe is probably what you want since you are not going to be using big pushrods and super still rocker arms. If you are going state of the art with high dollar parts everywhere then the newest fast rate lobe will probably give you a little more power.

The old Mopar 0.528 solid flat tappet cam is the best cam I've ever tested when used in a mild street big block with full exhaust. The modern fast rate cams don't work as well. Not exactly sure why but most likely it has to do with an interaction of the fast rate valve lift and exhaust dilution or something. I've tried fast rate cams from various vendors and then pulled them back out and put the old school .528 back in.

I also use an old Ultradyne roller lobe on a lot of street engines in the 600 to 700 hp range. Not sure what it is but something about that Ultradyne lobe lets the engine sound really smooth and mellow at idle but it makes excellent torque and good power up to 6500 rpm. The newest high speed lobes will make a little more peak power but they give up torque and idle quality. I've run tons of dyno tests over the years and just keep coming back to that old Ultradyne intake lobe whenever I need a cam for a guy who wants a street driver that runs 10's.

All good points. I've made more power taking an aggressive lobe out and using a softer lobe.

We went from lashing the valves every pull and some very weird curves on the dyno.

Once we softened the cam up, it picked up 500 RPM, about 30 HP, lash stayed put and the HP and TQ curves smoothed up.

[Geoff2]

Andyf,
Yeah great cam, the Mopar 528. From memory it was about 244-248 @ 050, 112 LSA, and single pattern.

[midnightbluS10]

I think Howards and Bullet have the Brookshire stuff. Not sure how it's divided.

If I'm not mistaken, some of his last designs were for the "Rattler" line at Howard's. Anyone know if that's correct?