Advice on cam selection

[Muad'Dib]

I have the same issue with my Stroker... especially on a cold start, or after sitting for a few hours. It idles fine, but as soon as i press on the skinny pedal it will drop lean and i will lose all timing (knock sensor) resulting in little to no power. Its only immediately after i press on the pedal slightly. If i press down a little harder, or continue to accelerate its fine.. just off idle. It does this for about a minute or two depending on the weather etc.

[Brian E]

Mine happens for about 1/2 a minute it goes lean, sounds horrible and is generally undriveable. The colder it gets the worse it gets. Everything else checks out. After that its fine aside from a bit of a rough idle. I can work around that by modifying cells in the fuel map on the AEM, but the it has a hesitation when it hits those spots while driving. The RVOB has a 110 separation. I have an Isky custom w/112 that I may consider swapping out for.

I am betting the 112 -114 will solve a lot of issues. I had debated on trying something a friend recommended to see if its vacuum related. Place a vacuum ball on the map line and see if it goes away or changes. It may not be a permanent fix but could give some insight. The 110 lobe creates very little manifold vacuum and goes away quickly when throttle is applied because the over lap is so much closer. 505 builds all theirs on 114. I may take the plunge this week on the 505 roller cam, I am waiting to hear the valve spring requirements. If it will work with what I have then I am ordering one, I do not want to start all over.

It appears after 1 1/2 years of being healthy I am going to be down again for a while. I have to make this a quick project and park it.

[dwg86]

Be careful with the 505 lifters. For some reason, he grinds a groove down the side of the lifter. Don't know why he does it. I don't see a need for it, and it looks like it's hand ground... not very pretty. You may want to ask some questions about that.

[Brian E]

He is trying to lube the cam lobe face, most use a lifter bore grove tool. I am looking at the roller cam, I do not beleive he will grove those but will ask. I worried about this oil issue in the past as well but I use comp ZZDP additive and broke my cam in right. I just removed it and everything looks great. I think another issue with cam failures is people skimp on spring set ups. There is a lot going on there and proper seat, coil bind and open pressures mean the world. "Titan"!

[SilverXJ]

I am betting the 112 -114 will solve a lot of issues. I had debated on trying something a friend recommended to see if its vacuum related. Place a vacuum ball on the map line and see if it goes away or changes.

From what I gather Hesco sells a lot of these cams and uses them frequently in their strokers. I do know someone else with one in their stroker and he doesn't have these problems. IDK, maybe it just doesn't play well with my combo. I've also heard that relocating the vacuum line for the MAP sensor from the throttle body (where it is on my 2000) to further down the manifold would help. I tried that for the hot rough idle and didn't notice any different, but I don't remember if it did anything for the cold start issue.

Be careful with the 505 lifters. For some reason, he grinds a groove down the side of the lifter. Don't know why he does it. I don't see a need for it, and it looks like it's hand ground... not very pretty. You may want to ask some questions about that.

When I saw the groove that 505 performance put on their roller lifters I was shocked. Looked like it was hand cut with a die grinder and it was huge. That was like a year ago, so hopefully they rectified that by now. There are correct ways to get more oil to the cam lobes, their method isn't one of them.

[scalper]

sorry to but in but i have been running the 505 roller cam in mine .last weekend the link bar that connects the two lifters on #3 cylder cam loose somehow and wiped out the lobes.at this point the motor got to come out and i am goin to futher acsess the damage.there were a few problems i run into using the 505 cams.the first roller cam i ran had lifter roller wheel tack about 50 or 60 thousands inch deep on all the lobes after about 17k miles on it.505 warrantyed that cam for a new one.they blamed that on rocker adjustment was to tight.when i installed the new one i did not check cam runout and it wiped out the two center cam bearings.turns out the cam was sent to me bent .007 "i guess due to heat treating.rather than messing with 505 on straightening the cam i just had it done local.well now this linc bar problem is causing me to pull this motor again.i am goin back to flat tappet i guess.i have been talking to jim at racer brown and thinking about using a custom grind from them.they use jeep blanks.i have been dealing with 505 and using there rollers since mar 09 and its not been with out problems.however the jeep made real good power when it was running with the roller.just my two cents

[scalper]

I meant the lifters tracked the cam on my first 505 roller.plus i dealt with cam walk issues due to thespring and pin could not control cam walk.i had to use a solid pin in place of the spring and pin and that fixed the cam walk.

[scalper]

i will have more pics to come if anybodys even interested.if you buy a 505 performance cam this will probaly happen to you after 10k miles. lets see $1195 plus teardown cost plus my labor etc. i have not pulled the cam yet to get pics but i can only imagine.

[jsawduste]

From what I gather Hesco sells a lot of these cams and uses them frequently in their strokers. I do know someone else with one in their stroker and he doesn't have these problems.

Not sure if you are talking about me or not Silver.

Hesco 274 @ 114*. Pulls vacuum enough at idle to keep the MAP (OBD1 controlled) happy. Degreed it in 4* advanced at build up. Choppy idle but no cold/hot start issues. Runs out of breath around 4500 +/-

Definite powerband. Starts coming on the cam around 2200 and pulls HARD to around 4,000 where it starts to taper off. Suspect if it was installed straight up it would pull to the rev limiter.

Slight lean spot just off idle but not to the point of causing any drivability issues. Was able to play with fuel pressure and took most of it away. Often don`t even feel it now.

IMHO the key is the lobe centerline. 133/114 seems to run better with the breathing and controlling of the typical stroker. Frankly I would not consider a cam with less then 113* that has any duration to it.

[dwg86]

I ran an Engle cam 214 dur @ .050 with .501 lift, 112 lobe separation with 3 degrees advance ground in the cam. I used Mopar performance springs, crower aluminum roller rockers, comp cams pushrod guide plates and Trend Chrome moly pushrods. Valve train was quiet and no problem with the computer(2003 Wrangler). My jeep got totaled with 18,000 miles on the engine. Up to that point I had no problems with the valve train.
One other modification I did was to remove the pin and spring and made a solid pin to keep the cam from walking. I thought there was too much camshaft end play with the spring and pin.
There are several cam companies that can recommend and custom grind you a cam; Engle Cams, Bullet Cams, and if I remember correctly I think Hughes Engines and Racer Brown will grind a Jeep 258 camshaft. Some companies don't show Jeep or Amc 258 camshafts on thier websites, but if you call they can help. I enjoy talking with the smaller cam companies and have always enjoyed the customer support I have recieved. Some of the guys you talk to with the smaller companies have started or a close family member as started the company, and a lot of pride and ownership goes out with the product they are selling.

Just my 2 cents....