Hi guys,
Does anyone know where I can buy a camshaft blank for a 455? It will be for a custom grind hydraulic flat tappet cam.
The big name cam companies don't seem to be able to or want to help.
Cheers Chris

 

Possibly Rocket Racing, BTR or other Olds racing parts dealers. Maybe some engine builders on this site would know.
There is a guy on YOUTUBE who grinds his own cams, maybe you could contact him.
https://www.youtube.com/@powellmachineinc

 

Wolverine does, I think they have changed names, https://camshaftmachine.com/core-catalog, this is the company now. They sell semi finished or blank camshaft. The catalog is NOT comprehensive, call them.

jerry

 

Powell might sell you a blank, but all the other guys listed can’t. They buy completed cams.
And who are you going to get to grind it?
Op- I do a ton of custom stuff thru Erson or Comp if you’re interested.

 

Hi Cutlassefi,
I am based in New Zealand, so I was going to get one of the cam grinders down here to do it. They are actually the guys who helped develop the original cam.
The car it is going into is a 1970 Delta 88 Royale with a W33 455, Strato bucket seats, centre console, 2.93:1 Posi. I have rebuilt the engine added aluminium heads, a performer manifold with a rebuilt and modified quadrajet. I would have preferred to have a Performer RPM, but there is not enough clearance under the hood. The cam in it now is a Lunati Voodoo 10420702, which is a bit tamer than I thought it would be. Exhaust has the stock dual exhaust manifolds, nobody makes headers for these, no room on the drivers side.
I have kept all of the original parts which have been removed.

 

I think you’ll be sorry if you go much bigger than that VooDoo, especially with only a 2.93 gear.
And your grinder needs to keep in mind that you’re running ex manifolds as well.
Just sayin.

 

find yourself a used hydraulic roller cam
from a diesel or a 307. they’re iron, the lobes can be ground to a flat tappet profile. you have to make sure when installing it the lobe is offset in relation to the lifter bore centreline just like a regular flat tappet cam for proper lifter rotation

the offsetting is done by shimming or cutting the separate thrust plate on the factory rollers to move the cam in the block

you will be limited to a few degrees more or less lobe separation though. Your cam grinder will have to figure that out. the diesel cams are ground with a wide 114 lsa , the 307’s are ground narrower.

comp won’t sell you a rough cut flat core unless they grind it. They are limited to 103 lsa narrow and around 115 wide when rough cut, depending on the lobe profile. round lobe flat cores for Olds are like white rhinos..I tried to hunt one down before , no luck.

 

I agree with CutlassEFI, unless you change to a 3.50 or higher gear, a bigger cam will make it sound angrier, but actually have less low end torque and have worse street manners and actually be slower. If you have flat top pistons, you should have at least 9.5:1 compression and should be making like 410HP and 550ftlb torque. Since you have aluminum heads, you have adjustable rocker arms, you can have any cam grinder start with any new or used cam and grind a reduced base circle profile onto it. As far as a rear gear goes, you can do some fabrication and use a Ford 8.8 or a custom 9in as a starting point. In NZ I would start with a modern truck rear end with posi and disk brakes and have brackets welded onto it to fit your car.

 

That is a good lookin 88, don't see many of them!