Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Whats the opinion on which is better for durability a pro 55 core or a nitrided cam. Or maybe i should say what are the pluses or negatives of each one.

G,day,
Go pro55 if you can, if the nitriding is not good its worse than stock,
Cheers

Thank you. I noticed a lot of cam companies offer the pro 55 cam cores but comp seems to advertise nitriding.

Little Mouse wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:49 am Whats the opinion on which is better for durability a pro 55 core or a nitrided cam. Or maybe i should say what are the pluses or negatives of each one.

Depends on the lifter. If you are using a tool steel lifter, don't do the nitriding. A nitrided cam and a tool steel lifter are to close in hardness to be compatible. The best scenario we have found is a micro polished Pro 55 core(not nitrided) with tool steel lifters.

If you are going to use cheaper lifters I would use a nitrided Pro 55 core.

Nitriding gives you a .001"-.003" very hard layer on the lobe, but the 900F temp, the cam is nitrided at, draws back the hardness of the core material, and softens the material under that hard layer. After time, the softer backing material gives way, and the hard layer cracks, and flakes off.
Nitriding will get you through break-in better, but will not last as long.

All right good detailed info apreciate it.

I had a FT cam nitrided here [ Australia ] & it didn't make it much past break in. I suspect CamKing's description is what happened. It was the gas nitriding process, which uses high heat. I believe the process that Comp Cams uses is electron nitriding, which uses much less or no heat.

My nitrided cam that failed was about 14 points rockwell c softer than a stock core, both on the nose's , base circle and under the surface when i ground 3 -4 mm off one nose.
I don't know what process was used but it failed, i had several people people pm me with the same failures with comps nitrided stuff as well.
From what you can find after the event cast iron is not really the material to be nitriding.
Cheers
Paul

The solid flat tappet in my personal ride was nitrided by SureCams here in Australia nearly ten years ago. Still running well, no change in rocker clearances at each check, and has covered approx 50K street miles in that time. Its a mild cam by racing standards though- 240/246 @50 and 0.560 lift.

The nitriding was originally decided upon due to previous wear issues experienced with the oil pump drive gear- a common, but unfortunately not isolated problem, with this engines' lubrication system. So far, this has been remedied with a combination of the nitriding, a modified roller cam button/retainer, and a custom oil squirter for the gear interface. Lobe wear resistance was, and touch wood still is, an additional benefit.

It'll drop a lobe now that I've written this.....

Where do the come from? Some info on cam cores here: http://camshaftmachine.com/cores

And here: You may see letters CMC and CWC cast into cam cores. Here's more info:

https://www.kautex.de/en/news-and-infor ... rs-textron

kirkwoodken wrote: ↑Thu Nov 09, 2017 1:26 am Where do the come from? Some info on cam cores here: http://camshaftmachine.com/cores

And here: You may see letters CMC and CWC cast into cam cores. Here's more info:

https://www.kautex.de/en/news-and-infor ... rs-textron

The other major supplier of finished cores in Engine Power, usually you will see EPC on the camshaft, I think they are Muskegon MI.

Trend also does roller stuff and a few others. I think Mike Jones has some of his own cores, too.