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Do you always degree your aftermarket cam?


turbogrill

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Hi,

 

Do you always degree your aftermarket cams?

 

I hear some people say you HAVE too, other say it's not needed.

 

This is from Isky:

"Because Iskenderian Cams are manufactured with such high precision you can install them on the stock timing marks without any further checking; however, for those who wish to learn how to properly check and verify valve timing, we recommend the following procedure."

 

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Isky's  ( and other MFG's ) recommendation is for the good Ol' Boy push rod Cheby's and Ford's. They don't have over head cams and don't have the unique issues that OHC motors do.  

 

That being said, I have to admit I've assembled some of my own street Datsun ( A-series push rod ) and SBC engines without ever going near a degree wheel. Never had any issues. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Chickenman
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36 minutes ago, madkaw said:

Of course My Isky cam came with the wrong degree numbers and I couldn’t get it “dialed in”, so I would have been better off just setting it straight up -lol

 

haha!

 

So typically how much wrong can it get? 

I would care if it's 10degress but 2-3 is fine for me. First engine build so I am just glad if it works :)

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If you set it up properly - it should be close enough. My head had been shaved considerably, so I winded up advancing the cam 8 degrees . Normally folks don’t get the exact numbers that are on the card because of factors like rocker arm ratio, etc..

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8 hours ago, HuD 91gt said:

8 degrees here from straight up after actually degreeing the cam.

Not a simple answer to that. I had this motor apart a couple of times and shaved more off head each time but did NOT degree every time . I also changed induction systems from triples to single TB, so I’ve done some experimenting with valve timing . Advancement was to bring power band lower .

i did advance to get numbers close the first time I degree’d the cam

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You should degree them, it is really best practice. The cam grinder has the decision to either grind the cam advanced with a smaller base circle diameter, or grind the cam for best fit i.e. largest base circle possible on the required lobe separation. So it's not uncommon to get a cam that the grinder gave base circle priority over ground in advance (as they probably should). 

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It isn’t easy to do ( degree a cam) for most though. Maybe that small bit of advance built into the cam is for that crowd that doesn’t . I’d almost advise against trying if you don’t feel confident about the process. If somehow the user retarded the cam drastically , they could smack valves . On the other hand , if you use the stock sprocket and set it up just like stock , it’s unlikely you will have any issues or be far enough off to negatively affect HP  by that much. 

I have been considering a whole tooth on my build , but it starts getting pretty hairy then😳

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