Cam Lobe Master Catalog - COMP Cams

HOW TO ORDER
2
HOW TO ORDER
COMP Cams ® leads the industry in camshaft lobe offerings.
With thousands of active lobes in the COMP library, the
combinations are infinite for any given engine. That means
that you can have a cam ground to your specific needs,
and you have the broadest selection of lobes available anywhere.
Choosing a cam for your specific application is a four-step
process:
1. Select a core
2. Select the lobes
3. Select a lobe separation angle
4. Determine the part number and grind number, and
order the cam
Camshaft lobes are broken into families, with each family
having been developed to fit the performance requirements
for certain applications. So, it is in that context that
lobe selection should begin.
1. Selecting a Core
Within the parameter of core applications, we have
fifteen cores that cover many engine applications. They are
designated as follows:
-0 Steel Billet Round Lobe
-5 Flat Tappet (Either Hydraulic or Solid Lifter)
-5RR Reverse Rotation Flat Tappet
-7 Special Flat Tappet
-8 Street Roller (Either Hydraulic or Solid Roller)
Special Material – Bronze Distributor Gear
Not Required on Most Applications
-9 Steel Billet Roller
-9L OHC Roller Left
-9R OHC Roller Right
-9W Welded Steel Billet Flat Tappet
-10 Steel Billet Roller
-11 Steel Billet Roller
-12 Steel Billet Roller
-14 4/7 Swap Steel Billet Roller
-16 Steel Flat Tappet
-47 4/7 Swap Steel Flat Tappet
Special Note: The -0 core is a round lobe core that is not
heat-treated. These cores must be roughed and then heattreated
before finished lobe grinding takes place.
The complete core list follows on pages 5-7. The list is separated
into the different cam core types. The part number
in front of each core is used in ordering a custom ground
cam for a particular engine type. It consists of a two-digit
prefix designating the engine type, followed by a dash (-)
and three consecutive zeros. The zeros indicate a custom
ground cam. Next are a dash and number from the core
designations previously listed.
Example:
Engine Prefix Part Number Core Type
12- 000 -9
The number 12- indicates Small Block Chevy (found on the
core listing on pages 5-7).
The number 000 indicates a custom grind.
The -9 indicates steel billet roller core.
2. Selecting Lobes
The lobes are listed on pages 8-61 and represent the
most current library of lobes offered by COMP Cams ® .
They are arranged in groups, each of which is unique in
its application. Along with each group is a description of
each type, which is intended to help clarify each family
of lobes so that you may accurately select lobes for
your application.
Some lobes specifically designated to be intake or exhaust
lobes do not necessarily have to be run on the valve for
which they were designed. If an exhaust lobe has the
desired spec for intake (or vise versa) they may be used
in that manner.
Keep in mind while viewing the listings that certain flat tappet
lobes are designed to be used only with correct
diameter lifters.
3. Choosing Lobe Separation Angle
Lobe separation angles (the angle in cam degrees
between the intake and exhaust lobe are also referred to
as “lobe centers”) are very engine combination dependent.
In general, a tighter separation (ex. 104°-106°) results in
a “peakier” torque curve more suited to stick-shift cars
with multiple gear ratios to change between. Wider lobe
separation (ex. 110°-112°) results in a broader, flatter
torque curve that is more suited to automatic transmission
cars with fewer gears from which to choose.
Therefore, engines have to be more powerful over a
broader rpm range. Also, as lobes get larger at .050”
duration (275° and up), it is necessary to begin widening
separation angles to lessen the amount of overlap that
accumulates from the larger lobes.
One final note about lobe separation angles - the cam
cores that are available for each application are designed
for nominal, standard lobe separation angles. Straying
from this nominal angle too far in one direction or another
can result in the heat-treated surface of the core being
ground through to the soft material underneath. Soft
lobes will fail in an engine if allowed to run for very long.
Whether or not the heat-treated surface is ground
through also is obviously dependent on the lobe being
ground on the core.
The bottom line is that not all grinds can go on every core
that is available. More popular engines, like the Small
Block Chevy, have a variety of cores available with varying
lobe separation angles that can accommodate almost any
grind. Less popular applications, like the Flathead Ford
V8, only have one core available. Therefore, they are
somewhat limited in terms of what grind will fit on the single
existing core.
4. Determining a Part Number and
Grind Number and Ordering
With the part number determined in the core selection
process, the grind number is the final step prior to ordering
the cam. This process is simple and is accomplished
by picking up the “lobe number” that appears in the left
column of the lobe selection chart.
The intake lobe will be first and the exhaust lobe will be
second, followed by the lobe separation angle.
1 . 8 0 0 . 9 9 9 . 0 8 5 3