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).

Thanks Jon G
This is more an attempt to learn what to look for, with my cam as an example. My inclination was to replace the cam because of the pitting. And am going to get new lifters.

But this is the first cam I have looked at and actualy held in my hand so I saw an oportunity to learn. The lifters have a little concave to them.

As a concept I have heard about regrinding a cam and lifters but in actual practice my knowledge is zero.

The engine I am working on is a 235. My first rebuild, so I am treating it as a learn as I go type project.

Chris

Chris, that same Melling camshaft is very good for the 235 also and I have said here many times I am a big fan of the standard cam that was used in the 1959 and newer 235s. It provided more torque at lower rpms and was one of GMs first attempts at lowering bumper-to-bumper smog (more power at lower rpms meant less gas consumption). Mostly those were ground for hydraulic lifters but the same camshaft was used in most trucks with solid lifters. I say "most" because I'm positive early trucks came with solids...I'm not certain all the later ones did. You do need a different camshaft for hydraulic and solid lifters as hydraulic lifters need a somewhat slower or smoother opening ramp where the ramp on solids can give you faster opening and even faster valve closing. If you study the specs on the Melling cam and the 1959 Chevy 235 cam, you'll see they (like the early Corvette cam) get you to about the same spot. The thing I like about the stock 1959-1962 cam is the torque curve...it gives you almost maximum torque around 1600 rpm and then the torque line goes flat all the way over to around 2800 rpm. Gives you lots of interesting possibilities.

Jon G
Based on the block numbers it looks like my block is a 59. It has the hydrolic lifters. So, as I understand it I will have to find a local Melling distributor for the cam. Is there a particular part number or just ask for the 1959 261 cam and it will work in the 1959 235?

Thank you.
Chris

Melling CCS-6 is the hydraulic lifter cam for the 1959-62 engines. Maybe someone has verified if it matches the original Chevy cam.

One big issue is finding good hydraulic lifters if yours can't be reground.

The CCS-1 solid lifter cam has been used by many here.

There is also a CCS-5 hydraulic lifter cam for the 54-58 passenger car engines.

Hi Chris,
Sorry...I thought you had a 261 with solid lifters for some reason. About 5 or so years ago I put together all the specs on the stock 1959 cam plus the Melling CCS-1 and the CCS-5 (which I could not find available for sale at the time) so that I could compare all of them. Somewhere I believe I may still have those numbers. The CCS-5 was very close to GM specs for the 1959 235 but it seems there were a couple of slight differences. I'm not at home currently...will look for that info when I return. I might know where a known good set of hydraulic lifters is however I'd need to do some checking.

As I have been told you can purchase the Melling CCS-1 or the CCS-5 camshaft now at places like Rock Auto and others. The price for either seems to be around $200.

I would re-use your original lifters , if possible. New hydraulic lifters kill rebuilt engines so frequently that some builders have given up. I personally know two engines that were destroyed by new hydraulic lifters failing in rebuilt engines during the run-in period. Both went with roller cams after the catastrophic failure of their new engines caused by the failure of the hydraulic lifters.

Re-grind the old ones and get a new Melling cam.

Jon G
There was no confusion on your part. I caused the confusion. I have a 261 at my in-laws in central Arkansas. I live in Kansas City and bought the 235 as a winter/ learn as I go project. I just failed to put that in the first post.
Thank you for the information on the melling cams.

As fir the differences from stock, I don't have any hands on experience with engines in general so I would not know the difference. Just book, video and hearsay.


Otto,
Thanks for the advice. I will see if I can find a shop that will regrind the lifters.

I had seen in some YouTube videos Issues with cams and lifters for chevy 350s, I did not consider there could be an issue with 235s.

Dt235sd
Thanks for the Melling CCS-6 reference.

All,
Thank you for your time and effort in helping me.

So this is what I understand so far from your posts.
Melling CCS-5 And Melling CCS-6 are hydrolic lifter cams which are close to stock specs.

Melling CCS-1 is for solid lifters.

Am I correct?

Chris

The issue with hydraulic lifters is across all makes and models of engines. If you can't get NOS ones, don't buy new ones.

I used these guys a few months ago to re-surface my solid lifters. Reasonably priced and had them back in 3-4 weeks. Not in the engine yet so I can't speak to how they work out.

https://www.rockerarms.com/pages/lifters.html

Here are the published specs from Melling for the CCS-1, CCS-5, and CCS-6 cams.