Welding and grinding cam lobes

[Confused1985]

Hi All
I'm working on an 8hp BS atm, and there are no performance parts out there.
I've seen various projects where people have either welded onto the top of the existing cam lobe, or ground down the base circle if the cam.
Has anyone here tried this as a long term solution?
My worry is that any weld would be softer than normal, and any ground down areas would go through the case hardening.
How long would it last before wearing out?

 

[Ibanez616]

Dont do it incase its a throw away engine you plan to blow up. There is no way you can correctly match the profile and lift on each lobe.

 

[Modding_out]

Dont do it incase its a throw away engine you plan to blow up. There is no way you can correctly match the profile and lift on each lobe.

Buy an extra cam, then do the math before you go all crazy:shrug:

 

[texasfabguy]

Dont do it incase its a throw away engine you plan to blow up. There is no way you can correctly match the profile and lift on each lobe.

why do you need to? ever heard of split duration cam?

 

[Ibanez616]

A cam is a precision part, if your looking to mess around, by all means go ahead and weld onto the lobe and grind your own. But if you have no idea what your doing, if it actually runs of course, it will put a good amount of stress on the valve train if enough lift is added and might end up being a bear to start. :shrug:

 

[MotorMind69]

just weld on it so the valves will open earlier, and be open longer, do a little at a time, start by making the exhaust valve opening earlier

 

[Confused1985]

Sounds like what I expected. I do hav another cam from a junk engine to play with but if it could end up damaging other parts I will leave it.
Cheers guys

 

[65ShelbyClone]

Why not just have a cam grinder weld your core and put one of their profiles on it? I thought I heard that Dyno does that.

why do you need to? ever heard of split duration cam?

I figure most utility engines could benefit from a split profile since the port sizes are always opposite what they should be with small intakes and huge exhausts. The cam in my Mustang has more lift and duration on the exhaust side to compensate for the typically small SBF exhaust ports. It's a weird sounding profile at idle.

 

[texasfabguy]

I did my own cam grinding 37 years ago on a Tec.I was 15 and read a lot of old hot rod mags back then. my friends uncle heli-arced the top of the lobes and I ground them on a bench grinder ,doing my best to copy some lobe profiles in the mag. it ran WAY better than stock did made good power and good rpm's until I sent the rod threw the block. I really had no clue what I was doing but I learned something and that is all that mattered to me.