To grind or not to grind

mlumley

New User
Farmall 350 motor freshened up and compression increased. I have read pro's and cons of having my cam ground. Can anyone convince me either way? This is plow class pulling. First gear nothing special. I just want to get down the track till I spin out vs losing power. Thanks in advance.
 
All the differant cam grind does, is holds the valve deeper, to let more air in, it's not like a car engine where the duration is changed, and then you get a rough idle ,you will never be able to hear it.
 
Rebuild the air cleaner innerds so it becomes a dry paper filter on the inside connected to the pipe goint to the carb on the side, and the intake up top lets air into the chamber. Use a propane intake manifold. Other than the flange sixe, an M carb looks close to the same. Jim
 
The term grinding a cam means nothing.

The cam has 3 elements to it, timing, lift and duration, say what RPM range you want to run and that determines the specifics.
 
Dave is correct. Unless welded on material is considered, the cam lobes must be reshaped by making the base circle smaller and reprofiling the lobes to change lift and duration (to some degree). They can work if the regrinder has a clear vision and experience. A performance cam will likely be of new manufacture to assure the valve train works within the original parameters of possible action. Wild cams designed to run at 3000 rpm will be deadly in a tractor used on a farm, and expensive in that rebuilding the engine after pistons swap holes costs more than the 5 dollar trophy. Jim
 
Thanks for the help, I think i will focus on getting good air to it and out of it. Bragging rights has a cost, just depends on how much you want to spend.
 
What's the condition of the current cam? I've seen too many engines put together for pulling, bored big, stroked, ect... And it's running a worn out stock cam. I have one in the shop now, bored big with a welded offset ground crank and a worn out cam, boggles my mind.

I work with turbocharged diesels mostly, our biggest advantage is we have custom grinds put on our cams, everyone else thinks it's voodoo magic and won't even think about it, but I will tell you it makes a tremendous difference on our engines. Even something as simple as moving the intake center line a few degrees one way or the other can have a big effect on low end torque, etc....
 
I would agree with you, and he should be able to find most any grind cam for that tractor off the shelf from puller suppliers, no sense designing his own.
 

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