smokinponcho73

iTrader: (6)

I am to the point of degreeing my cam in and I have never done it. Anybody willing to come give me a hand one of these weekends? I will buy lunch and beer. Or even give you money to come out and lunch.

tmoney223

iTrader: (2)

So is there a reason you're doing this? We just degreed mine to make sure it was the correct cam.

RonSSNova

iTrader: (3)

Is the engine in the car or on a stand?

smokinponcho73

iTrader: (6)

It's on a stand in my shop. I am only degreeing it in because when I bought the original 408 short block with the ms4 Erik Konig added 4 degrees into the cam and I don't know if it is lined up correctly or not.

Mikey 97Z M6

iTrader: (37)

Youtube has some good tutorials if you don't get any takers. Are the heads installed already?

Mike

smokinponcho73

iTrader: (6)

No, I am waiting to put the heads on until I degree it In. I honestly don't really know what degreeing it in will do and why it doesn't get installed dot to dot but people have been doing it for years so there is obviously a benefit to it.

tmoney223

iTrader: (2)

Yeah we just lined mine up dot to dot. It might be differnt for boost set ups and that I don't know.. Ill ask James or maybe he will chime in.

tmoney223

iTrader: (2)

Hey James said the your cam already has the correct degree built into it. So you should just put it dot to dot.

78_elky

When I built my engine in my El Camino we degreed the cam a few degrees so that it would give more low end torque (can't remember if thats ahead or behind its been so long). At the time I was young and thought it'd help the car get off the line faster. What would have really helped is better gears in the rear. Anyways it just changes the position of the lobes in relation to the pistons stroke cycle. So they can open a little before or a little after TDC for instance. If you get a cam that is right for your application then it should work straight up.
Jess

Mikey 97Z M6

iTrader: (37)

Well, the only real advantage (hp wise) would be if you have an adjustable timing set. If it's a stock style timing set the only thing you will be able to do is verify the cam was ground to the correct valve timing events of the cam card. That, and you can use the wheel and a piston stop to verify that that #1 slug is absolutely at TDC. It doesn't take much crank rotation to get a tooth off when it's not exactly at TDC.

Mike

salemetro

iTrader: (5)

Kinda what I said

What I meant was that most all (afaik) cams ground on Comp cores, have a 4 degree advance already "baked in" during the grinding process. There is no need to advance a cam on a Comp core +4*....it's already there when installed "straight up"....dot-to-dot.
I strongly recommend degreeing your cam, just to verify that it is installed correctly per the cam card. I do NOT recommend adding any more advance, as it's rarely needed.

That being said, I have found that most always, you end up dot-to-dot anyway....but it's sure nice to run it through the degreeing process to make sure there is nothing funny going on with possible timing chain/gear manufacturing errors. I'm a big fan of the Cloyes Hex-a-just kits with the C5R chain for really getting things nice and exact.....just my personal preference. But, as T said...we ended up "dot-to-dot" on his engine after the degreeing process anyway...so some will argue that there's no need to degree the cam to begin with. I just don't like to be left guessing/hoping that it's all correct.

Hope this helps

smokinponcho73

iTrader: (6)

I have an adjustable timing chain already set at 4° I don't remember if it is advanced or retarded right now. I will degree it just to know it's done right.

salemetro

iTrader: (5)

Cool. Just set it to "0" advance, and run the degreeing process...probably spot-on....but this way, you'll know for sure.

Edit: From Comps Website...

Should you degree your new cam?
It isn’t absolutely necessary to degree the cam for the engine to run efficiently. COMP Cams® grinds most
of its High Energy, Magnum, and Xtreme Energy™ cams four degrees advanced. This positions the
camshaft for the best street performance. However, to assure maximum performance it is recommended to
degree the cam. The purpose of degreeing a camshaft is to correct the errors and tolerances in the machining
processes of the engine that can affect camshaft timing. COMP Cams® suggests the intake centerline
method as the most simple, quick, and efficient way to degree a new camshaft.