"Old School" Stocker Cams

[Run to Rund]

I heard that the original "cheater" stocker cams came about when Joe Lunati took high lift cams and cut off the top of the lobes to max allowable lift. He then used a belt sander to round off the edges until the engine would reach the desired rpm.

[Frank Castros]

We ran a Lunati "Jerry Stein Special" in our Max Wedge. I don't remember the part number.
There was also a cam from Isky, the 1012-B.

[Dwight Southerland]

Originally Posted by Run to Rund

I heard that the original "cheater" stocker cams came about when Joe Lunati took high lift cams and cut off the top of the lobes to max allowable lift. He then used a belt sander to round off the edges until the engine would reach the desired rpm.

Actually the original cheater cams came about when Bill Jenkins could not get a new OEM camshaft from Chevrolet to pass NHRA's specs. (For the "Monster Mash" 55 Chevy I believe.) He went to General Kinetics with the problem and they ground a cam that would pass. In the process, they also added in some area under the curve and voila!

[Cbrinson47]

Originally Posted by Dwight Southerland

Actually the original cheater cams came about when Bill Jenkins could not get a new OEM camshaft from Chevrolet to pass NHRA's specs. (For the "Monster Mash" 55 Chevy I believe.) He went to General Kinetics with the problem and they ground a cam that would pass. In the process, they also added in some area under the curve and voila!

TRUE......I miss Da Grump !

[Lyn Smith]

Dwight, I think it was a west cost cam company that did the Grumps cams. One of the secrets to the performance of his engines along with ring combinations, and plate honing.I don't think you could buy a cam without getting a complete engine in those days.

[djm670]

Originally Posted by Lyn Smith

Dwight, I think it was a west cost cam company that did the Grumps cams. One of the secrets to the performance of his engines along with ring combinations, and plate honing.I don't think you could buy a cam without getting a complete engine in those days.

Lyn, I vaguely remember seeing Jenkin's name on order forms at GK in the old days when visiting Teweles's shop. But don't totally remember.

GK was located in a less than prime area down near the University of Detroit. Don was way ahead of his time when it came to camshafts back then, was not as much of a business man; but sure fun to work with on cam shaft designs. He was a real innovator. Valve springs were an issue, but he was good at working with the stock spring pressures. While Isky was acknowledged as a leader in the polydyne cam profile. Don Teweles wrote his masters thesis on on the polydyne principle and I personally believe he had more to do with it than Isky. As have mentioned in the past, wish we had taken good notes on all the things that were done. Don's were the only cams I ever ran in the Camaros, Ford and the Mopars. Any car I ran always had a GK cam decal on it. Don love to hear stories of setting class records and going to tech teardowns. I vary seldom paid for a camshaft there. Maybe helped pay when a new master lobe was required. Don was a very generous and kind man.