SBC solid roller regrind

[cgarb]

Can a standard base circle solid roller cam be reground to a small base circle cam?

[statsystems]

Can a standard base circle solid roller cam be reground to a small base circle cam?

Isn't that almost .100?

I can't remember what base circle sizes are but IIRC, standard is like 1.100ish and small is .980ish?

I'd bet mad bill knows.

[cgarb]

Yes, its close to .120" smaller but, you are actually only removing .06" of material on a side.

[bigjoe1]

Very dangerous= You cant tell until it is done, then you could have the hardness verified.




JOE SHERMAN RACING

[cgarb]

Just a thought...sometimes they are not all good ones. Thanks, whatever I decide to do I will trust my cam grinders advice. Hopefully they wont steer me wrong. How do you verify the hardness of the lobe without ruining it? We have a hardness tester here at work but it puts a dimple in the metal that you have to measure with an optical scale. We also have a digital unit in inspection but it dimples the material also.

[Charliesauto]

If the cam has a serial number on it, call company that made it. Give them the info for the lobes you want and the lobe seperation, they should be able to tell you if your core it will go small base circle with those lobes and seperation.

[cgarb]

That's the route I am going...just haven't got all my ducks in a row yet. I'm still racing this year, once fall hits and the car gets pulled down for the winter inspection I want to change some stuff around.

[Geoff2]

You are also weakening the barrel strength. If strong springs are to be used, the cam may flex.

[CamKing]

Yes, its close to .120" smaller but, you are actually only removing .06" of material on a side.

You can not regrind that much off the cam.
The average heat treat depth on a steel cam core is .080"-.100".
When the cam is originally ground, .040"-.060" is removed.
So, that only leaves .020"-.060".
If you regrind .060" off, the lobes will be as hard as butter.

[stealth]

Yes, its close to .120" smaller but, you are actually only removing .06" of material on a side.

You can not regrind that much off the cam.
The average heat treat depth on a steel cam core is .080"-.100".
When the cam is originally ground, .040"-.060" is removed.
So, that only leaves .020"-.060".
If you regrind .060" off, the lobes will be as hard as butter.

I hate hard butter!

[Walter R. Malik]

I will have to say, this depends on THAT particular camshaft and how it was ground on THAT UGL. One flank may get soft and the other may not or all different combinations.

I can tell you that I took a small block FORD factory O.E.M. "Explorer" hydraulic roller cam and ground .050" off the base circle then measured the hardness, ground another ,050: measured it again ... at .200" it started to get softer.

I would not expect most others to be even near there.