The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop cam and lifter questions

I am trying to learn.

How do you know if a cam can be reground?

How do you know if lifters can be ground.

How would regrinding cam/ valves affect the valves?

When I look at the cam, what am I seeing? Shiny areas vs dark areas?

I have attached photos of my cam and of a couple of my lifters.

If you can, help me understand what I am looking at.

Thank you.
Chris

Hi Chris...From your images your camshaft seems to have seen quite a bit of wear/age. I think there's a good chance it could be reground however I'd lean toward buying a new one...Melling makes one that would be good with your 261...CCS-1 as I recall is the number. The reason I say that is because regrinding will cost you around $175 plus shipping and a new one will cost you around $200 or so. The lifters could also be reground (probably) however I can't see enough from your images to make a call on them and I don't know how much sidewall wear they've seen. The bottoms of the lifters must be convex on the bottom (bowed out very slightly). I've seen some that were concave from use/wear. You want the convex situation so they will rotate while they're going up/down...there is an angle on each cam lobe that also causes rotation. If the lifters didn't rotate, the camshaft would just dig a ditch in them and they wouldn't last too long. And also I believe the rotation helps with sidewall wear as things go. On your camshaft, the shiny areas are where the cam has worn down over time...where the lobes run against the lifters. One gentleman who knows a lot about camshafts and lifters is Jerry (HotRod Lincoln). Hopefully he'll see this and comment.

edit...one way to check the bottoms of your lifters is by setting them on a flat piece of glass. That will let you see if they're convex (they will bobble around a bit) or if they're flat to concave (no bobble).