Hey. I just got my cams in the mail. The brand shall remain nameless for now. I have never seen a cam before. Is the quality in these pics standard on cams? They are from billet cores, according to the manufacturer, and not regrinds. They look like they used to be 2 halves that were welded together. You can see where the welds have been "smoothed" over. Some of the lobes have metal jutting out from them, although it is no where near where the rocker arm would touch (I think). You can see what I mean about the lobe below. I just expected that a part in the engine that spins at high speeds would look a little more balanced and polished. I know the rough areas don't touch anything in the engine. The welds go up the sides of the lobes, too. All areas that touch anything (lobes and bearing areas) look smooth. I think I took pics of the better-looking cam. Is this normal?

 

Those cams are not from classic billet stock. They have sand casting marks on them. The shiney ground spots are where the flashing from the mold halves was rermoved. Does this say anything about quality? No. The quality of the cams depends on how well they were designed, setup, machined and the quality of the metallurgy.

 

those are not welded,,,its from balance. and the metal chipping on side of robe is normal
thats what GSC cams sales man told me

 

i like the quality of hks cams way better
you get what u pay for

 

i agree.

 

The look of the actual cam does not matter, it's the appearance of the surface of the lobes themselves. Personally I would not run any cams that have imperfections in the surface, as usually this is an indication of a poor finish, and failure will likely be at that point (think how small potholes in the road get bigger). On a $3.5K motor, I prefer to run a bit higher quality components.

That being, you'd probably want to check the hardness rating of the camshaft. On a rockwell scale, I believe camshafts need to harder than 55 (don't quote me on this) as a soft camshaft will mean rapid wear and deterioration. Also the casting does look a bit rough on that camshaft leaving me to question its durability. At the very least I'd get it cryo treated if you really want to drop that into your car.

Are you a guniea pig on this one or have others tried the cams? If others have tried it without failure, then you should be ok.


Cheers,

Gary

 

So are those GSC cams bad quality? Because that's what I was planning on going with, and I'd really like to know BEFORE I bought them.

 

I would like to know as well... who's the culprit?

 

So do most camshafts not look this bad? How do HKS cams look? Do they have all the grinding marks and uneven lobes? I haven't gone over every lobe yet, but they look smooth on first glance. I'm not a guniea pig on this. Plenty of people use them, so I've heard. I was just surprised. Like you said, I want high quality parts in my motor. Some companies might put out a bad batch every once in a while. This might be one. Maybe not. Maybe it's normal, I don't know. That's what I want to be sure of before I put them in my car.

Someone mentioned that these aren't classic billet stock. What does that mean? I just assumed billet stock was good, because that's what everyone seems to want. Any more help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

I said the cams were not from classic billet stock because the smaller diameter portions of the cams would have been turned down from a larger diameter stock and thus would show concentric tooling marks from the lathe work required to do this.

 

that cam looks fine. it is just a cast cam not a solid piece of steel or some other metal that has been milled down. it should be fine as long as the bearing surfaces and the points where the rockers ride are not messed up

 

Send it back and get another one...

 

why send a perfectly fine cam back? just because it is a cast cam doesnt mean it is a piece of crap

 

I never said its a peice of crap but if you're uncomftorable with it then ask for another.

 

I have the Buddy Club from Gruppe-S and went to check them after reading this post.

I didn't take them out of the sealed bag they were in (there was some lube in there and didn't want to take em out just yet), but they look fairly similar. I'll have to look again today...

Are there any closeups of HKS cams to compare? I'm a little confused. Are GSC and Buddy Club billet? I guess they can be billet and still be cast? Are the HKS also cast? I was thinking forged vs cast, but maybe that's not applicable...

Thanks for any clarification.

FB