Engine: Cam grinding - I had my 259 V8 cam ground by Oregon Cam - I was impressed by service & price

[Charlie D]

The machinist here in Tulsa that is working on my engine was not impressed with the cam or lifters that came out of the 259 V8. The lifters were cupped and he recommended a re-grind on the cam. A local machine shop that grinds cams was ridiculous with their quote. Cam alone = $300-350. I researched the forum and one of the members had his cam reground by Oregon Cam in Vancouver, WA. I sent them an email with a picture of the cam & lifters and requested a quote - $50 for the cam and $4 each for the lifters - $114 total. I paid $19 UPS shipping to get the cam there and $19 to get it back. Total cost = $152. A total of 17 days from my shipping to them until I got them back.

When I got them in I opened the box and they were a dull charcoal gray. I called up Carl Purdy and told him they were not shiny like they were before. He said they had been carburized which is a good thing. The lifter faces had the slightly rounded radius on them. I am a happy camper with the results. The gentleman at Oregon Cam who called to get my credit card info said that they recommend Brad Penn break-in oil for the cam and lifters. A little research revealed that it has a pretty high level of ZDDP in it which would go along with a few threads that I have read on the forum.

Charlie D.

[royvaldez]

I would recommend them as well. They charge to regrind to avanti spec's for $70.00 for cam and $3.00 per lifter.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Tom Covington uses them for all of his race cams and lifters.
I am sending them that Engle cam I got from Ebay for treatment.

[PackardV8]

Yes, Charilie, I agree, Oregon Cam does good work.

When I got them in I opened the box and they were a dull charcoal gray. I called up Carl Purdy and told him they were not shiny like they were before. He said they had been carburized which is a good thing

Carburizing is a surface hardening which can only be applied to steel, not cast iron cams and lifters. Is it possibile they said they applied Parkerizing (also called phosphating and phosphatizing) which is a method of protecting a cast iron or steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear.

jack vines

[Mike Van Veghten]

Jack is correct.

Its a coating to help keep the skuffing hopefully to a minimum during break-in.
It's not a heat treatment.

Mike

[Charlie D]

Thank you guys for the update on the processes used.

Charlie D.

[woodysrods]

Just a questin. Can you have a stock 289 cam re grounfd to R2 specs?
Brian

[PackardV8]

Just a questin. Can you have a stock 289 cam re grounfd to R2 specs?
Brian

Yes, and a bit more. Iskenderian has an R1-R2 regrind they call the E4 @ 260 degrees and the ST5 @ 268 degrees. Both Oregon Cams and Delta Cams have similar offerings. These are just the standard '50s street/strip cams.

jack vines

[woodysrods]

Thanks Jack & Charlie
The # of degrees means nothing to me???
Sorry
Brian

[jackb]

and, please, not to criticize anyone here, because I did this on a rebuild some years back: should you replace the lifters in their original bores ?? How about pushrods ?

[PackardV8]

Lifter faces should be reground for use on a reground camshaft. Lince the lifters are rotating constantly, when the faces have been reground, there is no reason to put them back in the same bores. This is only a must if the lifters and cam have not been reground.

Again, in a perfect world, the same pushrod ends should be placed back in the same lifter and rocker arm. In the real world, no one bothers.

jack vines

[BRUCESTUDE]

I have used Delta Cam in Tacoma, Wa. Their price was similar to Oregon Cams, and the turn around was about 3 days. Nice folks, too!