Billet Camshafts

[madKE35coupe]

hey there rolla fans. i had mentioned to my mechanic matt about getting a new cam for the corolla and see how it goes. and he said he can get a billet cam for me fairly cheap. are they a worthy buy? i havent had a lot to do with cams, so this is all kinda new to me. also how much would other places expect you to pay for one? cheers brendan

[Evan G]

i must say why?

 

just regrind your old cam to suit your application

[madKE35coupe]

well the only thing there is i don't think there is anyone around here that does that kind of thing. plus the fact that he was already going to get one for his KE10, so he was going to do a deal for me. plus I'm more than happy to help support his business as he has helped me out alot with the coupe

[altezzaclub]

Billets are the blanks that big cams are cut from. If you cut your existing cam they have to grind away the base circle, so you lift your rocker up to meet it and the nose stays in the same place to give you more valve lift.

 

A billet is bigger all over, so they can cut a higher-lift cam without you raising the rockers, so you keep a better rocker ratio.

 

Go for the billet if you can afford it and want a pretty hot cam. A mild cam (270deg) can be cut from your own one quite easily for about $170 including re-facing all the followers. You'll need to get the followers re-cut either way, as they wear to suit the particular cam they run on.

 

 

...and stacks of people still cut Corolla cams on mail-order. I had mine done with Crow. Google is your friend...

Edited December 19, 2010 by altezzaclub

[camerondownunder88]

Hi,

Well Billet I can see one good reason for getting one. If you want to run roller lifters in a K motor. You can't use them on a stock cam shaft. My cam grinder refused to sell me a set of roller lifters as the roller has harder material than a stock cam and he said I wont be happy when I drop a few lobes seconds after starting it.

 

He would only do a billet cam if I wanted rolelr lifters. So not crazy this guy also does billet K cams off the shelf.

 

Another reason is TRD bored out the cam shaft bearing lands and made larger diameter cam shaft bearings for better load distribution with the higher spring pressures the twin valve springs run etc so if I went biller it also copy TRD would be easy to find off the shelf bearings of larger diameter and fit them. Again not cheap but if you want the goods need the $$.

 

Cameron

[ROLLA FOR L1FE]

i got a 3k cam threw waggot cams for 170

[madKE35coupe]

well i reckon it would be a good deal then because thats about how much he was going to charge me for the billet one!

[altezzaclub]

Go for it! Get an idea of what you want the motor to do and what else you're doing on it, then compare the cams from different cam cutters. A cam that's too hot for the carbs/head/exhaust will make it a dog to drive.

 

I got a Crow because hey had more lift at 50thou than the others, although total lift and duration were the same. They just cut the cheeks differently. With a billet you can do a lot.

[philbey]

You can't use them on a stock cam shaft. My cam grinder refused to sell me a set of roller lifters as the roller has harder material than a stock cam

 

That doesn't make sense, you want the roller to be harder because it does more "kilometers" than the cam lobe and will wear more. Same applies for gears, always make the smaller gears harder as it wears quicker.

 

Billet for 170 is a good price, just run with it. Also, you avoid issues with fatigue on a 40 year old cam that's reground. Also, regrinding an old cam you can probably end up getting very thin with the case hardening and delaminate. A billet cam will be hardened after the grind so it would be nice and thick.

[camerondownunder88]

I probably worded that wrong. You need billet so it is harder but not HARDER than the roller. Stock cast metal after a grind is to soft for a roller lifter. As one of the main points of running roller lifters is to run massive ramp rates and a soft stock cam with a huge ramp rate the roller wears if not removes the peak of the cam.

 

My cam grinder will re case harden cams and treat them comes as an extra cost but.

 

Cameron

[madKE35coupe]

well matt reckons i don't need the lifters cause it already revs its tits off! he is supposed to be getting his KE10 this week, so when he decides to get his cam he will order mine as well i suppose. he also has a re-kitted weber with a new air filter and adaptor plate for me for 200, which i thought was a bargain.