Cams (2012)

snail said:

Thanks for clearing that up Jim!
This is for the drag bike I bought earlier this year. It has the BSA lifters, I'll have to check the radius. A quick glance shows the (480) contact patch to get dangerously close to the edge of the lifter, so may need some work there.

More questions to follow.....

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The 480 cam should use BSA lifters cut to a 7/8" radius (not the stock 1-1/8') This will give you a slightly narrower contact patch that's not so close to the edge of the lifter. If you use this cam be very careful that the tappet block is located correctly height wise because there will only be about .040" or so overlap at full lift and at 0 lift (in other words the tappets are nearly falling out of the guide block or the cam lobes are nearly striking the guide). It will work but you have to be accurate. Some people have installed a "U" shaped brass support under the center of the cam to reduce flexing at full lift.

Blewdy Yaink said:

According to John Hudson........ I made the mistake of telling him that I was planning to put a 3S cam in the 850 engine that we were building up for my Production Racer in the Experimental Shop at Marston Rd. --

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I used John's tuning notes when I built my first race motor, very useful today, let alone then, when considering method and solid common sense.

The choice of cam I had was one stamped TX that came with the kit of parts! I bought the kit of parts from Mike Sadler just after he had been made redundant from the experimental shop in '75! He was preparing to go off and mechanic for Alex George.

I was pointed to Mike by Dave Rawlins!