Dumb question
Dumb question At work i was telling a couple of people about I have a cam in my car well there is one guy there thats is the type of person thats always lookin for a reason to bust my ***** cause when we argue im always right well last night we got on the subject about my car and he was like is it a quarter cam ,1/2 cam, 3/4 cam or a full cam. I was like well hell I know I put 1 full cam in. what does all this mean hes old school and this is not the first time ive been asked this question 
Go the a Crane Cams catalog and look in some of there old SBC hyd flat tappet section and you will see some of these older terms. They didn't have the same amount of off the shelf cam grinds that they do today. Not only that but cylinder head advancement has really taken off in the last 20 years. The older term cams were designed around STOCK cast iron SBC heads(57'-80') and can't come close to the efficiency of today's cam lobe profiles. For the most part don't let him pick your cam out. He is only guessing at what will work in today's engines. Call the cam companies yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD NOT LISTEN TO HIM WHEN IT COMES TO OLDER GEN1 SBC. Just not to when it comes to GEN2 or GEN3!(92' to present F&Y body)
The terms actually meant they would run a more aggressive lobe (lift/dur) on only part of the cam. It would make good power but still idle. Remember they had carbs and mechanical fuel pumps. The most common was the 3/4 race cam. About 35 years ago that was something bad *** to do. With today's technology and fuel injection we can do a complete bad *** cam and still maintain a driveable car.
