Cam box interchange

[pooldoctorstl]

Are the cam boxes on all TC motors the same? I think they are but just want to make sure.

Jeff

[BEEK]

As far as physical dimensions yes. All intake cam boxes from any year will fit any year. Same with exhaust. The differences are in the accessories and mountings. some mount smog pumps some mount distributors ect.

[pooldoctorstl]

Thanks, BEEK. That's what I thought. For the race car so accessory mountings are not important. The ones I have with race cams in them are also modified for oil drainage so I wanted to make sure they will work on the 2L I am building.

JM

[BEEK]

i am assuming you are referring to holes drilled below the normal overflow to drain the boxes into the sump?

i will give you some insite on that, i used to do the same on all my race engines, then i notices something, camshaft lobe wear. these camshafts are designed to run in a oil bath. if you stave the camshafts you will have accelerated lobe wear. i have also restricted the amount of oil flowing to the boxes as well. did not notice any difference there, as long as the level was maintained.

first, what kind of racing are you going to do?

[rebar1111]

Careful on the interchangeability on performance engines. If a reground cam was used, the cam box may have been machined to match the reground cam. Maybe .025 inch.

[pooldoctorstl]

I road race with a couple of vintage clubs and will probably do a few local SCCA events this year.

This is the intake cam box. It has been modified with cuts next to the shim buckets and also with 2 holes (about 3/8") a little higher as you can see. Look just above the cam. The are high enough to maintain an oil bath but not as much as stock.



This is the exhaust, and it does not have the cuts by the buckets, but has the upper drains opened up, as you can see. No other holes like the intake.



I'm not sure why the PO that built the motor did this, but he raced a lot of Fiats and he may have just had these from other motors and used them to build the motor that was in the car when I bought it. It was a 1438 that I still have. The cams are FAZA. I have a couple sets of stock cam boxes that I can use if you think this is a problem.

Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it!

Jeff

[pooldoctorstl]

Actually, I do know why he did it...obviously to get oil back to the crankcase.

JM

[So Cal Mark]

the oil level is also used to cool the valve springs, if you're running a race motor at high rpms that's a concern

[pooldoctorstl]

Mark,

My guess is that these are reground cams, I will check to see if the boxes were machined out. Would you recommend that I use a set of stock boxes?

Jeff

[BEEK]

i have wiped out a few sets of billet cams over the years. my recommendation is to use stock cam boxes, maybe restrict the flow but not much and run 1 qt over oil in the sump, run a windage tray and a scraper if you can and afford one, a winged sump helps too. the biggest issue is to be able to run as much oil as possible and keep it out of the crankshaft. i have run dry sump systems on my v8 race cars, i run 24 quarts of oil, only 2 in the pan at any time, but the volume of oil, lets it run cooler, and also never starve at any time.

[BEEK]

those cams look like billets, check the markings on the back side of the cams and post them if there are any

[So Cal Mark]

the holes that I can see don't look like they're too low, I expect there would still be adequate oil. OIl level in the cam box isn't quite as important as using oil with plenty of zinc

[Holshot]

Hey Mark,

What would you say is the oil which has the most Zinc?

Thanks

[pooldoctorstl]

BEEK, Here are pictures of the cam ends (back)

Intake


Exhaust


They may be billet, I don't know. The PO said they were FAZA, but didn't remember the exact specs. Do you know what these are?

JM

[So Cal Mark]

imho, Joe Gibbs Driven oil is the best on the market for our cars