How to check cam specs without a card?

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72 Mach 1, Q code 351CJ, 4 speed.
A friend of mine is giving me his cam out of his Ford motorsports 460 crate motor. The cam has about 50 passes on it before he swapped to a roller.

The motor made 550-600 hp out of the crate.

I am also getting the matched lifters, springs, shims and keepers all marked for their origional location. The only problem is he lost the cam card. I know how to find lift with the motor installed but can't find anything on bench checking. I think the motor was purchased 8 years ago.

Any advice?

Wade

 
If the owner of the crate engine remembers about when he bought it, I may be able to look it up in some old Ford Racing catalogs I have. From what you have said it could be the M-6007-F460 crate engine circa 2004. It would have come with a single plane intake. The cam in that engine was a hydraulic flat tappet part number M-6250-C460, .588/.614 lift, 244/254 duration @ .050 lift. You can reasonably accurately determine lift using V blocks and a dial indicator.

Chuck

 
Is it a Ford Racing crate engine? If so, and it's the original cam from Ford, then you may be able to make a good guess based on the lobe/ valve lift.

If not, I think the service is called Cam Doctor? Never done it, but I think you send them the cam and they can measure it.

Any ID marks on the cam? I know a guy that works tech support for FORD racing and he might be able to ID it if it's a Ford piece...


I have the motor Chuck references, it is a great engine and cam...


He's also a faster typer than I am...

 
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I'd start by looking the cam over for some sort of numerical identification. The cam grinder may have scribed a grind number onto the cam. If there's none, see if you can find out if this was a custom grind or something off the shelf from Ford Motorsports. If the cam was custom, you'll have to just measure everything yourslef.

If you can find a list of cams offered in the crate engines, you may be able to ID it by simply finding the lift of both I and E lobes. It really will depend on how different the lift values are for each cam offered in the crate engines.

Lift can be determined using a caliper or a micrometer by measuring the highest point on each lobe and subtracting from the base circle. Lift is most accurately determined using a dial indicator by observing the total indicated range.

If lift alone doesn't ID the cam, then you'll have to set up a dial indicator and a degree wheel and measure the I and E events. A cam card will typically have an advertised duration along with the duration at some specified amount of lift. For hydraulic cams, they will often specify duration at .050" of lift and for a solid it's often at .020".

I suggest you go to the Wallace Racing Calculators and get familiar with camshaft terminology and what it means...this will help you understand what you're measuring with your indicator and degree wheel.

How you actually fixture your cam will depend on what you have available....if you have a lathe, for example, you could chuck your cam and use that...if you have a set of V-blocks, you could use those...the most simple approach would be to just use an engine block, crank, and timing set.

And then there's the machine shop. You may just want to save yourself all of this effort and take it to a reputable machine shop and pay them to measure it.

Best wishes with this, let us know what you end up doing and what cam you have!

BT


One more detail. Remember to multiply the lift you measure at the lobe by 1.73 (the rocker arm ratio) to get the lift at the valve. Usually both will be listed, but if not, you have both values to compare.

 
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I just went and picked up the parts. I was wrong on the year. It was a 1999 460. He paid around d $4600 for it new. It ran low 10's in his Falcon out of the box. He also gave me the roller cam he replaced it with when he went bigger. That cam has about 15 passes before he built a stroker.

I will look for numbers today.

W

 
From the 2000 Ford racing catalog, the 535HP 460 the hydraulic flat tappet cam is .588/.614, 244/254 @.050 (with single plane intake) cam number is M-6250-B460. The 486 HP cam is .562/.588, 234/244 @.050 (with dual plane intake) the cam number is M-6250-A443.

Chuck

 
Are you referring to the 351 based 460 stroker?

Below is one version that has 575 hp and uses aluminum heads and a cam with 242 248 @ .050 .594 .618 lift . Unless you have high flow heads and 460 cubes and at least 9.5 compression, this cam and any others near this size will be too big for your app . Also, it should have at least 3.25 gears with that particular Ford setup if you want good acceleration.

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-6007-Z460FFT

 
He told me he was pretty sure it was around 588 lift. The motor had 9.5:1 with cast heads and ran on pump gas.


This was a true 460, not a stroked 351.

 
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He told me he was pretty sure it was around 588 lift. The motor had 9.5:1 with cast heads and ran on pump gas.


This was a true 460, not a stroked 351.

Ok, I have not heard of one of those, however, those cams are too big for stock unported 460 FE heads.


Which heads do you have?

 
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I would say that it's the C460 camshaft. You can find its serial number from the trannys end of the cam. Place the serial to google and be surprised that the cam is made by comp or lunati (can't remember which one). Cam is made for 385-engineseries meaning 370/429/460.

 
Hopefully you guys can read hyroglyphics than I am! There is only 1 pic of the roller cam. That is the one that looks rusted but it's not. All others are the hydraulic flat tappet that came in the crate motor.

I don't actually have a motor yet. I am collecting parts and these were free! :) I don't know which cam I will use but the heads will probably be the 429 thunder cast heads. I will buy new valves to go with the springs, retainers and shims.

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