V8 camshaft

[MARSHO]

Hi, can someone tell me how the griff 500 cam is retained?. the cam I have has a tapered shoulder at the front, and the retaining plate I have just recieved has a stepped recess in it obviously this is not right ,so how is the cam held back in place.Thanks David.

[chassis 33]

Is it a serp or pre serp engine?

Pre serp engines aparrentyl have slightly angled lobes that produce an axial thrust into the engine that holds the cam im place, although it is reccommeded that a "cam button" is fitted for race egines, this (i think) fits to the end of the cam and pushes against the timing cover.

Serpentine engines have a retaining plate that is bolted in and fits in the groove you mention.

Regards
Iain

[russell_ram]

The cams in pre-serp engines are not 'retained' as such. The axial force produced by the skew gear driving the distributor/oil pump force the cam against it's thrust face on the front of the block.

On a post-serp engine (either GEMS or intermediate type) you don't have the drag from the oil pump to produce enough force to hold the cam against the front face, so a retaining plate is fitted. There are two types, the round one for serp+distributor and a horseshoe one on later non distributor engines.

If you don't have a distributor with oil pump drive you must run a retaining plate.

If you do have a distributor driven oil pump it's still wise to run a plate, as it locate the cam much more effectively. You can get your cam nose machined very easily to take advantage of this. Alternativley most of the aftermarket suppliers will supply new cams with this feature already machined in.

Russ

[russell_ram]

Have a look here - it shows what the nose of the cam needs to look like to run with the round retainer.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dl

Of course, you can run the 'retained' type cam in an older non-serp engine with no problem at all.

[MARSHO]

Many thanks.David.