I have a few friends that run his cams, no problems yet....I just picked one up from him, He lives over in plano. Real cool guy

 

I have bought 4 cams from this guy to do cam swaps. All 4 of them the lobes started pitting bad. 2 cams were the same motor and the other 2 where in different motors. All had comp 918 springs and the correct pushrod. I have done over 20 cam swaps and these 4 are the only ones that had the problems. All the other swaps where used with brand new cams from comp or crane.

Heres a thread from one of johns cams. This is one of the swaps I did. All 4 of them got maybe 4000 to 5000 miles on them before messing up. Reinstalled new cams in these motors and not one bit of problems out of them. This is why I wont ever use a regrind ever again.

http://www.ls1truck.com/forums/pics-...-my-truck.html

 

2 where in my motors and the other 2 were in cam swaps I did for other people.

 

well thats no bueno....guess im going to buy another cam...

 

I would never buy one, just giving out info.

 

 

 

Even at full retail ($350-$400) cams are not that expensive. Unless you have no other options (like an exotic application, already mentioned) there's no reason to go with anything other than new, and considerable downside potential if you don't.

 

There is a reason these cams are only $125. That should have been on your mind when you purchased these "regrinds", they are gonna be more likely to fail but that is the reason for their low cost. Just like a used car, you have no clue where it has been and what is has been thru.

 

Even @ $350-$400 Thats an awfully expensive cardboard box those Brand Name cams come in... You know you can get the same grind on a brand new cam right here in California for less money.

FWIW, They are The same New cam cores that Comp Cams uses... How do I know, because a friend of mine has a cam business and he buy's The New cam blanks by the crate load and sales them to companies like Comp Cams. He also grinds cams for other companies that offer private label cams through their own speed shops.

Companies like Comp Cams do alot of advertising which is part of why there product cost so much. But they don't by product in bulk either. They may only buy 50-100 cams at one time were as my friend buys a crate load of cam blanks which may contain 1000 cams. obviously the more you buy the better the price brake is.

There is only like 3 companys that make the cam Blanks


As far as regrinds go its like a crap shoot. A cam that was damaged can be repaired by regrinding it if its not to bad. The thing is you need to know why the lobe had an issue. If its meturagy problem the cam is junk. If its something else that failed in the engine and ate the lobe you might be ok regrinding it. Cams should NEVER be welded on as part of the repair process. The welded area and the filler metal will not have the same proerties and will not wear the same. It may even break away under load and cause severe engine damage.

I am not going to get into the processes of welding Cast materials like a cam or a crankshaft because thats a whole nother topic in itself

I personally would recomend haveing the cam heat treated after a regrind to make sure the wear surface is going to remain hard.