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Cam Question

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Morris

Morris

Yoda
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Hey guys,

I am raiding over from the Spridge forum and hoping a kindly Spitfire expert or two can help me with a question I have about my 1500 Midget.

Can anyone reccomend a good place to buy a mild street cam? How about a reliable shop to have my current cam re-profiled? I am on a pretty tight budget, but I want to get this one right the first time, if you know what I mean.

Thanks!
 
COUGH COUGH Iskenderian cams are legendary.

The JRT competition department sent a letter to me in 1980 saying that one of their GT6 competition cams was no longer available, & recommended an Iskenderian cam.

So I guess there's a reference.
 
Morris said:
How about a reliable shop to have my current cam re-profiled? I am on a pretty tight budget, but I want to get this one right the first time, if you know what I mean.
Click to expand...

How could I forget, Reed Cams. Years back, they re-ground a cam for me that's still in service.

https://www.reedcams.com/
 
I never purchased a cam from them but have purchased other items which are very good quality. But I assume that you both have had bad experiences with their cams? What happened?
 
Google Elgin cams. Because of the rash of bad tappets, I had to send them my new tappets along with my cam (a 20 yr old Elgin) so they could check them for hardness (this was 3 or 4 years ago).
 
Google Elgin cams. Because of the rash of bad tappets, I had to send them my new tappets along with my cam (a 20 yr old Elgin) so they could check them for hardness (this was 3 or 4 years ago).
 
Google Elgin cams. Because of the rash of bad tappets, I had to send them my new tappets along with my cam (a 20 yr old Elgin) so they could check them for hardness (this was 3 or 4 years ago).
 
Google Elgin cams. Because of the rash of bad tappets, I had to send them my new tappets along with my cam (a 20 yr old Elgin) so they could check them for hardness (this was 3 or 4 years ago).
 
Google Elgin cams. Because of the rash of bad tappets, I had to send them my new tappets along with my cam (a 20 yr old Elgin) so they could check them for hardness (this was 3 or 4 years ago).
 
Found the letter from JRT Competition Department, when I was looking for the Competition Department's S2 Street/Sport cam for the GT6:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]...the S2 camshaft as quoted is no longer available due to the fact that we are experiencing difficulty in getting the cam blanks from the factory. We have been promised a supply of cam blanks which have yet to materialize. When these become available, we will once again be able to supply S2 cams.

Meanwhile, we would suggest that you contact Iskenderian Racing Cams, 16020 S. Broadway, Gardena, CA 90248, 213-770-0930, who can regrind your existing cam to a specification which is very close to the S2, which they call Z19 grind; which is suitable for competition and street use. The [factory competition dept.'s] S5 camshaft is an all out racing cam and is in no way suitable for street use.[/QUOTE]

The nice tidbit here is the GT6 Z19 cam is still available from Iskenderian, recommended by JRT Competition Department East as very similar to their S2 cam.

You could easily just rely on Iskenderian's offering for Spitfire (or most other cars, they've been doing it for a billion years), but it might be interesting to do some research & see if they have a cam that's most similar to a Competition Dept cam that you like. I assume that BL/JRT
published a Spitfire Competition manual as well, so if you watch for it on ebay or look for it someplace like https://www.bookfinder.com ,it might contain specs for different cams offered by the competition dept which you could compare with specs of cams offered by Iskenderian, Crane,
Reed, whoever, or use as specs for a regrind.
 
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