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This rabbit hole will end one day, I have to convince myself.... So the current situation is the cam on my '67 Toro needs replacing. I know I have options with using the 455 cams as well, but I'm having a difficult time finding any threads where someone used a specific aftermarket cam in their 425 and was happy with the selection.
My intent is to drive this car on longer trips, however there will be plenty of chances to use it locally as well. What I'd like to know mostly is if anyone chose a specific cam for their Toro and how they like it, or if they possibly sent their stock cam off for a copy, rebuild, or regrind. If so, does the factory configuration work well for you? I can't decide whether just having the stock cam copied and made new would be a better choice than an aftermarket cam (which I hope someone could recommend here).
I intend to have my (fairly new) lifters resurfaced. What cam should I use?
The factory cam was fairly mild. You could do just about any aftermarket cam with a bit more duration @ .050” lift and get a performance boost. If you stay on the conservative side it will maintain drivability. I would think 210 to 220 duration should work well. I’m a small block guy with a 217 cam in a 350 and it works very well.
We degreed the factory cam before pulling it, and it was around a 225 duration with a 113 degree lobe separation, 55 overlap, .474 lift int/exh. I guess what I'm looking for here is to find if anyone replacing their cam just had their old spec cam remade, or if there was a specific one (like say, the JM-16-18) that they chose instead and have been happy with. It's been a minute since I went cam shopping, and I'm not sure who I should look to or avoid - trying to read as much as I can and gather as much info as possible.
The 1968-70 W34 Toronados used the same 285/287 deg cam that came in the 1969 H/O and the 1970 W30 AT cars. This is a good cam for a heavy car with power options.
The advertised duration of this cam is 281/282, but that is at .000, not .050. 225 is what we measured as actual. Looking at similar cams on the market, Engle has three in that range - MW-31 at 234/234, KM-16-18 at 210/216, and JM-18-20 at 216-226 - all with very similar int/exh lifts.
The 1968-70 W34 Toronados used the same 285/287 deg cam that came in the 1969 H/O and the 1970 W30 AT cars. This is a good cam for a heavy car with power options.
That's the kind of info I'm looking for, and that's a cam that has a proven track record in a similar engine and car. Very good idea.
After several calls with Toro owners who have done this change away from the stock cam, I ordered the JM-18-20. C heads are all cleaned and ready with new valves and springs, intake is cleaned and ready for install. I sent my lifters to Egge for resurfacing. Gotta rebuild the carb yet, but that's no biggie. We're about a week from putting this all back together. I'm still cleaning years and years of caked and baked oil and dirt off of every surface in the engine compartment, scraping rust and doing as much protection and painting as I can before reassembly. Come to think of it, we may be two weeks from putting this back together
And... starting over again. The cam I received from Mondello (through eBay) was an absolute piece of junk. I cannot believe they are still doing business this way. It arrived in a used box, unwrapped, un-oiled, no lube - nothing. Loose cam in an Erson box with the original cam sticker scribbled out. No ID stamping, no cam card, rust on the bearing journals. They didn't even bother to pack the cam box inside the larger box it was shipped in - just let everything flop around from California to Ohio. It took about 30 minutes to wrap it back up properly and return it. I reached out to cutlassefi and another engine builder friend to get the proper cam heading my way. Another delay, but all my fault for trusting a known poor business....
This is how I received the Mondello cam:
Last edited by BSiegPaint; February 25th, 2024 at 03:55 AM.
Wow - the camshaft industry is great if you have a Chevy.... After more than a week of back and forth discussions and calls with a number of suppliers, I finally have a cam on the way from Melling, the MEL25211. It's a small compromise from several that I had decided that were "perfect" but turned out to not be available. A little more than the stock in some ways, a little milder in others, it should do a good job with this motor. I talked with a rep from Howard's yesterday, and he told me that there are only two suppliers of the blanks needed for cams, and they are at least 10 weeks out from making new Olds, Pontiac, Ford, and Mopar cams. Still supply chain issues. I'm not sure where manufacturing and such takes place, but my order for this cam was from a parts supplier in Miami, from a company based in Michigan, and it shipped from California. Hey, as long as it gets here and I can get this engine running again!!!
It seems like ever since the end of the pandemic, it has given everyone the excuse needed to run their businesses in a really crappy way. It doesn't matter where you go or where you shop, it's really lousy service.
February 8th, 2024, 05:17 PM
