I received my Lunati cam with a short instead of long dowel,...I could have waited weeks for them to send me a longer one but wanted to get going on my build.

What to do?,...I could'nt find any source of suitable dowel stock in the town I am living in,...but this one machinist had an idea after measuring the cam dowel diameter, .247 inches,...

A HSS 1/4" dill bit measured 0.248 inches and there was just enough material in the shaft to make the dowel.

It turned out great.

I really like these inexpensive home made solutions.

 

Good solution!...at a great price.

 

Hopefully you used some kind of retaining compound on it

 

duct tape

 

snot?!, it was handy and free

 

i know drill bits break rather easily when stressed too much. good luck. i wouldnt trust it.

 

This isn't uncommon, and you could acquire a dowel at NAPA, an industrial supply house, ordered from MSC etc.

I've known of several guys who tried to shade tree dowels out of bolts, drills, etc. Even though it should primarily be locating the camshaft, the survivability rate was low - would suggest a real dowel.

 

Has'nt lunched yet,...I will post if it does,...of course you know it will seem like an opti problem IF it does break?!

 

It may very well be more of a problem than that.

 

Yea not really a good idea, the drill bits are hardened and are brittle, the dowel pins will flex and give. If the bit decides to go south you will have wished you waited that extra time, and as said you can get pins at your local parts house..

 

Still running great,...all broken in and pushing it hard every once and a while.

I'll post again after another 10K miles?!

 

A friend got a cam once that was dropped on end in shipping driving the pin in deep. Stopped at the local auto parts/machine shop and in like 3 minutes they fixed it and he left with new head dowels too. Silly to spend time and effort coming up with the wrong materials when the proper solution is cheap and easy.

 

why not call them and have the right one sent?

 

FYI, Fastenal stocks a wide variety of dowel pins too.

 

If it does break, you can pretty much kiss that cam goodbye! As mentioned earlier, a drill bit is hard and brittle ..........and will be close to impossible to get the remaining part of the bit out of the cam if it breaks flush. A a dowel can be drilled out fairly easily, that bit can not!