The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop What is a RV Cam?

I bought a used 350 Chevy motor. The seller said it had a RV cam. I have also read cover articles in magazines where a truck has this RV cam. Can anyone tell me who makes this cam or what are the specs on it?
THanks in advance

An RV cam is just the description used by many cam manufacturers to describe a cam that gives more performance in the low and mid range rpm band. You would have to look at the advertisements by each manufacturer in the magazines, because all of them have a slightly different idea about what the term RV cam is supposed to mean. You can think of an RV cam as a mild performance grind. Think more low end performance with limited top end performance. You can't get something for nothing, and the cam profile is one of the determining factors on how well or how poorly an engine is going to run in a specific application.
Bob

In case you didn't know, RV is the abbreviation for Recreational Vehicle. Low end grunt is essential for these vehicles. I'm not sure cam grinders didn't just bring back that other cam of nebulous specs, 3/4 Race, and call it RV.

Each engine, by design has an RPM spread where it develops it's maximum torque/Hp. RV grinds optimize the torque potential at a lower rpm. This allows you to get a heavier mass into motion with less engine revs.

I just added a modified RV grind to my 235 which improved my low end torque at a lower engine rpm.
Couple up this extra grunt with the proper gearing and you can improve on fuel economy by making your power with less engine rpms. My engine develops 25 inches of manifold pressure at idle and will pull along at 70 mph@2000 rpm's with a .72 T5 tranny and I expect 20 mpg after she's broken in.

If you're planning on building up a hot rod with pure performance in mind, you might want to anticipate finding a more radical grind. Hope this helps.

Dave

As everyone has said,an RV cam is for a behemoth motorhome for bottom end to get it going.They cruise at highway speed.There is no top end or passing power.Not a good choice for a smaller vehicle if you want acceleration

I always thought RV=Regrind cam. They way I understood it, as a stock cam is regound, it becomes "lumpier", so they call it an RV grind.

Big Block described it exactly right.

In my early hotrodding days, the good ole 50's, all performance cams were regrinds. But, so was any stock rebuilt cam, it was just a matter of what profile a customer was after. The only difference between a regrind and the new factory cam was that the cam journal was of a smaller diameter, but the profile and the lift were what was important, and that did not depend on the diameter.
One learned very quickly to buy only from a well known grinder, because cam grinding is a very exacting business and there were a lot of clowns out there selling nothing but trash.
Today, the top name grinders start with new billets made with (we hope) superior metals.
Bob