Okay, so many of you are aware of the NIGHTMARE of an old mechanic that I had "rebuilding" my beloved C3. Well finally about a year ago I pulled the plug on this jerk. Went over to his shop, got all of my parts that I could find. <less about 2.5k worth.> packed up my car and drug it off on a trailer to a new mechanic. Well, about a month ago this guy was finally able to start working on her full time. <That was part of the agreement, he had two resto's in front of mine.>

So here is whats going on now. He took the frame off and is about to install the engine and drive train. However, before we can do that, we have to find the camshaft information for the engine build. The old mechanic seems to have lost the cam card for my camshaft. <We need to figure out the torque converter.> So what happens now? Am I screwed and have to buy another cam? Is there any way that I can find that information on the camshaft itself? Any thoughts?

I am not joking when I tell you that this project has disheartened me to the point that I almost hate looking at corvettes. I hope that once I get her running again, that the love that I have had since I was a little boy comes back. Other wise, there may be a real steal of a car for sale...

Thanks
John.

 

What type of cam is it? If it's the original cam for the car, or another GM cam, I'm sure someone on this forum should have the specs. If it's an aftermarket cam, you should be able to find the specs on the manufacturer's website. If it's aftermarket, the model number or part number should be stamped on it somewhere.

 

Check the front of the cam for a grind number. If it is a comp or other manufacturer you should be able to reference that number and find the specs. If you cannot do that you only other option would be to pull the cam and take it to a shop with a cam doctor. The cam doctor can measure the camshaft and give you all the specs on it.

 

Yup, I agree there should be some stamping's on the nose to trace and get a new cam card. As for the tc, guess just try it and see how you like it. It's tough when you get a mechanic that doesn't know what he's doing. A friend had a 400 sb built that kept trashing rear main bearing's. Turn's out the rear cap's on these don't have a thread bottom and if using to long an oil pump bolt will push down on the main. Mechanic did this twice, and all the removal/reinstall labor was on my buddy.

 

Thanks for the reply! I guess I am going to have to pop off the timing cover... Its a comp cam. So we will see...

 

Actually, just looked at an extra cam I have and the stamping's are on the back end. Mean's the cam's gotta come out to see them.

 

Send a private message and I'll get you two together. He's in north Georgia and can recreate the specs card for you.

 

So just take the cam out, look at the number stamped into the back of the cam, and look up the specs in the catalog. If it's a CompCams custom grind that's not in the catalog, just call them with the number and they'll give you the specs. This is not a difficult problem...