I always put cams in V Blocks and turn them before I install them because no matter what some people say, I have seen old cams get bowed from long storage laying flat. I think this same setup could be used to compare 2 cams. Everyone I have known in days past seemed to agree that hydraulic cams lift more abruptly. I would think that mounting a cam on V Blocks, rotating it with a dial indicator on a lobe would tell the story. I would probably mount driven gear on the cam and use the teeth for reference points. I think you would find a hydraulic cam to move the dial indicator much quicker than the solid lifter cam. Total lift can be calculated by multiplying by your rocker ratio. I still think the abruptness of the lift is what Jerry calls "clearance ramp". I don't know technical words because my formal education was in accounting and pre-law. But I did build some pretty quick engines 50 years ago which disgusted my parents. My mother would have rather raised a lawyer like her family had been since the 1700's and my father would have rather seen me in a white shirt hiring maintenance done like he did. But I was happy with being called a hoodlum back then. I think now they call them motor heads. I overhauled my first Cummins Diesel over 45 years ago, and I still run all Cummins and supervise maintenance and do a lot of trouble shooting.
