Thread: Do You Degree Or Not That Is The Question

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How many people degree cams in a street car? Do you degree because of cam size or manufacture's recommendations?What factors do you use when you make the decision to degree your cam?

if it is stock i do not but if i have the card on the cam i will check it or make shure the intake opening is rigth

never worried about it on the st., race only

Originally posted by erik erikson
How many people degree cams in a street car? Do you degree because of cam size or manufacture's recommendations?What factors do you use when you make the decision to degree your cam?

Every motor, every time.

wouldn't put it together without doing so. i haven't found one yet that wasn't off a little bit as low as 1/2 degree. Comp claims they grind most of there street cams on a 4 degree advance so that weekend hobbiest could put in straight up and be safe. theory i'v heard is a cam losses power quickly if it is retarded but can take a couple degrees advance and be ok.

Always on my motors. Even the folks making camshafts make mistakes.....

The reason I made this post was in the past few years I have ran into more than a few cams from several different makers that where mis-ground.The next time you degree a cam try several different cylinders instead of always using number one.The point I guess I am trying to make is if you have cam lobes that vary are you really degreeing the cam?If they do vary do you take the average and use this number?After talking to the cam makers they seem to think a cam that is mis-ground a couple degree's is just fine. If this is fine do you get it where you think it is close and go to the dyno or the track and advance or retard the cam a degree at a time where it makes the most power or runs the quickest?I really am tired of spending $ 250 or more for a billet roller cam and have off a few degree's.

I'm with you Erik,

A few of my local friends, the one's responsible for getting me back into building an engine, have run into problems regarding incorrect cam timing.

In some cases it was related to poorly made/marked timing gears.

I view degreeing the cam as a fundemental part of the building process.

Which raises the question, what timing sets do you all like these days for a good double roller?

well some of the cam grinder do not have machines that good ?? or for $250 they will spend only so much time on this .like i said on stock rerings i do not. but on something that has a new cam i do .but i have seen them by off 2 degrees this dose not keep me up at nigth less you want to buy a cam grinder and start grinding them your self .this is something to all ways check but there is some stuff that i will spend alot more time on and the chain will stretch and move it any way with a new crank and timming set i will check them every time

Originally posted by MainCap
I'm with you Erik,

A few of my local friends, the one's responsible for getting me back into building an engine, have run into problems regarding incorrect cam timing.

In some cases it was related to poorly made/marked timing gears.

I view degreeing the cam as a fundemental part of the building process.

Which raises the question, what timing sets do you all like these days for a good double roller?

I had been running Cloyes true roller's.I have now switched to Progear.

If you are putting it on a dyno for max. HP then you need to, if you are not then it could be off in your favor. if you are spinning your wheels real bad then a retarded cam might help you go faster. everybody has their own idea on how to adj. sol. lifters and that will change the valve timing. Unless you got everything else prefect then you'll never know the dif. on a St. motor. JMO

Yup, what Mike said..... The dyno tells all, without one everything is nothing more than an educated guess. When dyno's and flow benches first started becoming available, a lot of builders (self inculded) had to relearn a lot of what we thought was gospel on engine building.......

Originally posted by lt1s10
If you are putting it on a dyno for max. HP then you need to, if you are not then it could be off in your favor. if you are spinning your wheels real bad then a retarded cam might help you go faster. everybody has their own idea on how to adj. sol. lifters and that will change the valve timing. Unless you got everything else prefect then you'll never know the dif. on a St. motor. JMO

hold on lt1s10 i think you are rigth. do not fall off your chair i have seen chain sets off to. no one ask me but i like rollmaster sets. alot of the cheaper timming set are all the same sets like manley cloyes edelbrock crane old blue racer chain made by the same company and gears have the same cast numbers on them to they are all made by cloyes?rollmaster makes timming set and now every one put there name on them like crane etc and add more money to them and put them in there box

Originally posted by pat mccarthy
hold on lt1s10 i think you are rigth. do not fall off your chair i have seen chain sets off to. no one ask me but i like rollmaster sets. alot of the cheaper timming set are all the same sets like manley cloyes edelbrock crane old blue racer chain made by the same company and gears have the same cast numbers on them to they are all made by cloyes?rollmaster makes timming set and now every one put there name on them like crane etc and add more money to them and put them in there box

lots of this with lots of parts