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how can you tell if my car has aftermarket cam?


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i found one of the many service papers in the car today and it says "non stock cam/fix timing"... so i'm like woah... this thing has a cam? so how do i check... the idle don't bounce up and down like muscle cars do... i just want to know if the motor still have the aftermarket cam or not... i'm guessing take out the valve cover and check for stamps at the end?

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"how can you tell if my car has aftermarket cam?"

 

I cant, my magic 8 ball is broken.

 

However, you can, with some simple measurements.

 

Take your rocker cover off, and look at the cam lobes, now, if you can, get in there with some verniers and measure the height of the lobe, from the unmachined part of the cam to the tip, then do the same on the opposite side of the cam with the 'flat' of the cam, and minus that from your first measurement.

 

its not accurate by any measure, but will cive you a close enough figure when compared to the standard spec for the camshaft lift to tell whether its a hot cam or not.

 

But if you did want to do it accurately, you'd need to measure the lift and duration of the entire lobe with a dial indicator and degree wheel.

 

sometimes you can do it in the car, but 90% of the time, its done with the cam out.

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i found one of the many service papers in the car today and it says "non stock cam/fix timing"... so i'm like woah... this thing has a cam? so how do i check... the idle don't bounce up and down like muscle cars do... i just want to know if the motor still have the aftermarket cam or not... i'm guessing take out the valve cover and check for stamps at the end?

Take the valve cover off and take lots of picures, some aftermaket cams have markings, some dont. If it doesnt have any markings like "CRANE" there may be little subtleties that somebody here may be able to point out after looking at pictures.

 

I'm not an expert on cams, but I know my stock style aftermarket cam had some distinguishing features that were much different than the original cam. So there may be a way to tell... But again, I'm no expert, but there are a few here.

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