Camcraft Newsletter

July & August, 2002

Editor: Charles Reichard

www.camcraftcams.com

Dear Customers,

                    The summer heat is really upon us now. Thank heaven for air Conditioning, even if it did double our electric bill last month.

          As expected the lifter situation continues to worsen. Another price increase has brought our cost of SBC solid lifters to what we sold them for about 15 months ago. Don’t be surprised at anything in the lifter category.

Winners;

          Congratulations go out to Steve Drummond of Drummond Race Cars in Laurel, DE. He recently won Super Gas at the recent NHRA Divisional race in Numidia, PA.  In addition to that he won Best Engineered car with his new Super Comp Dragster, which he built himself from the ground up, and incorporates a rear suspension of his own design.

          On the D.I.R.T. tour scene. Randy Chrysler in the #21K Sportsman car has won three tour races. His  power is supplied by Pogo Machine & Salvage of Lockport, NY. He has 16 feature wins this season and is the current points leader at Canandaigua Speedway.

          Other Pogo Powered cars seeing victory lane include Rodger Chrysler #T-21 Pro Stock at Gasport Speedway. He is also the points leader at Gasport.  Pogo Power also prevails at Ransomville Speedway where Don Burnes # 28B Street Stock is the points leader and Stuart Friestan in the 10A Sportsman car is is points leader in his class.

Jr Keen, Keen’s Automotive, Smithfield, VA, reports that Larry Venable picked up a feature win in the # 12 Super Street class at Langley Speedway. Hudson Hall in the #20 Super Street car got another win and is the current points leader in that class.

          Diamond racing engines, Hickory, NC has powered Robert Hayes #84 and Mark Setzer #3 to victory in the Late Model Stock Class at Hickory Speedway.

          Ronnie Presswood of RP racing Engines in Lenoir, NC reports that Jamie Yelton #8 and Pete  Silva #01 have wins at Hickory Speedway . Pete is the current points leader.

The following has been published here a year ago but bears repeating. Especially important is the part about the need to figure top speed for street cars as well as drag cars.

Some thoughts on choosing the proper cam.

1-    Short duration cams with wider lobe separations usually yield flatter torque curves

2-    Longer rod motors prefer a shorter duration cam with wider lobe separation

3-    Most unported heads approach 85 or 95 % of peak flow at .400 to .450 lift and do not need or want a maximum valve lift over .540 to.555. Often a low cam lift with 1.65 or 1.7 ratio rockers is very helpful on the intake side as long as lift is kept to about .550. Exhaust is less critical with 1.5 or 1.55 being the most popular.

4-    The benefit of high ratio rockers is faster valve movement and the added lift is frequently detrimental in unported heads. It often helps to utilize a lower cam lift with high ratio rockers.

5-    The important numbers on a dyno sheet are about a thousand RPM above and below peak torque and peak horsepower. Peak numbers are for bragging purposes and high peak numbers do not win races.

We have many people (especially small block Chevy owners) who say they want a cam to make good power to at least 6500 rpm. Take a moment and figure how fast 6500 rpm is in high gear (not overdrive). A typical car with 3.70 gears and 28-inch tall tires will be going 145+ mph. Even with 4.10 gears top speed will be 130 + mph I doubt that many of us will ever go that fast in our street car and certainly not at a drag strip. 5500 rpm is still 125 mph and as fast as most street cars and many race cars will ever see. Making power at 6500 rpm will sacrifice power at 3500 rpm where you need it much more to launch the car. There is no point is having 6500 rpm power when you go through the lights at 5500.

If you’re not running a Camcraft cam, You’re probably following one

We thank you for your continued support.

Yours truly,

Charles, Harriett, Clarence, & Chuck