What to do With My MK Cams
 

I've read every post that FF started with his cams and I don't know with my MK cams. So far I have not had any problems yet do I pull the cams out or should I leave things alone??? I only have about 10 hrs. on them right now.

Why don't you call the cam manufacturer and tell them what the cam is and what springs you have and see what they have to say. Then pull the distributors and run a bore scope through the hole and see if anything looks suspect. Then decide what to do from there...

I hope you realize that there are about 5-10 peeps on the bash MK cams bandwagon and I'm not saying that they didn't have issues.
There are also 100's of others that are running MK cams with good results.

I've got no dog in this fight so carry on

If you tore your motors down based on things you read on the internet and speculation, I think you'll have them torn down every year. Who does that...:party-smiley-004:

I have a few more hours than you do with Bob M cams and also have no issues. I have called Cam Motion and I am go to go as far as I am concerned. My cams are not a lot different than a 525 efi and everyone seems to like them so I am not going to worry about them.

What are the specs of your cam?

I have 496s, heads are AFR 305s cams lobe separation 113.1 intake duration 237.1 lift 663 exhaust duration 243.5 lift 654

Very good point !!

Many more then a handful with issues, and most seem to be recent and specs like mine, a simple test would be to yank a distributor and you can at least see the 4 last lobes visually, takes 10 minutes you will know if you have issues, if it looks good run it till refresh time, many of the guys not having issues are less agressive on valve train... That's why no issues, my valve train is beat to you know what at 65 hours...

My MK SBC cam went in 2007 and was still running when I sold the motor to donzi matt a couple years back. Cam Motion billet roller 234/240 .580/.568 112+4. When engine was rebuilt last time, cam and lifter lobes were normal. Morel lifters. Motor made great power and GPS speeds were above expected for the setup. Like mentioned above inspect thru the distributor hole and if happy with performance leave it alone. My .02

It appears that you have a 0.385" lobe. If you look in the Comp Master Lobe catalog it appears that they will run a 0.390" lobe on a 236. Others correct me if I'm wrong but the concern is a 0.400" lobe on the shorter duration cams? 236-244 degrees?

That's where the problem seems to be come into play. Jim v has I think close to .393 lobe lift with similar duration like you mentioned with 1.8's but that's a comp grind. Not sure if it's a 8620 core or not but seems to be bullet proof with short duration high lift.

Who is using 9310 cores?

His lift is all rocker ratio. I have the specs of his cam card somewhere. I'm pretty sure it is 236/242 on a 0.380" and 0.383" lobe (proven Comp lobes). He runs 1.85 Jesel rockers for 0.703"/0.709" lift. He also runs solids because in customers boats he has been having too many problems with Morel and Johnson lifters not pumping up, making noise and not making power over 5000 RPM's. We just took a boat out that he pulled the HR lifters out and went solids. The boat idled better, pulled harder and turned I believe ~200 more RPM's. (EFI engine)

I'm not saying his setup is or isn't bullet proof. He just has the means and knowledge to maintain it.

I dont think everyone who has a MK cam, needs to remove it and throw it in the trash.

However, besides the issues some have had, I have never seen so many guys put so much emphasis on their camshaft. I see guys talking about how great their engines idle, how great it pulls, and so on.

I have the same crower hyd roller cams in my engines for years. Ive changed everything but the cams. I started out at 75mph when i first installed my engines in my boat. Just this past friday, i ran 95.4mph , and was still pulling.

Whats my point? Ive had 3 different ign systems on these engines, 4 different carburetor styles, 3 differrnt superchargers, and 2 different sets of heads, and two different static compression ratios. My engines behaved, idled, accelerated, and overall ran different with each combo, while the cam remained the same. Granted its a supercharged engine, but.....

At the end of the day, its a friggin cam. I dont go around praising crower for how great my engines idle, how great it runs, or any of that. Theres a ton more to that story, than just the cam.

If the cam is in there, nothing showing wear, and you are happy with the performance, id run it. I never liked tims 241 deg .400 lobe cam , from day 1. Hence my suggestion, to tear into the engine, and take a look. It wasnt because of some sort of anti bob conspiracy. Its called science.

A quote from Kip at cam motion

Someone came up with this statement and it stuck, “THE MORE AGGRESSIVE THE RAMP RATE, THE MORE OVERALL AND UNDER THE CURVE POWER”. It was probably some cam lobe designer trying to BS people. Ramp rate? What is that? Velocity? Acceleration? Degrees from .006” to .050”? You must have high acceleration and jerk to have a lobe that has a low .006” to .050” number like 49 degrees, and that will beat the snot out of the lifters and be noisy. We use a smoother ramp of about 55 degrees. The .050” to .200” can be pushed if you want a high duration @.200”, but you will have higher accelerations before and at the nose which will float sooner. If you have two cams, both having [email protected]”, one with .340” lobe lift, one with .360” lobe lift, the lobe with the higher lobe lift (.360”) will always have a higher .200” duration.
Why does everyone want to know the .200 number? because some said the higher the .200 number the better the lobe? Or is it more power it will make?