Budget Build 5.9 for a 71 Scamp

rumblefish360 said
I don’t remember. I read about it a while back which was an interesting read that I am so sorry, can not repeat because I didn’t retain it.

But I do remember the depths were like a sneeze of nothing deep. It actually seemed laughable. But it works.

Considering you can have a cam cut really heavy and have it heat treated again and perform great, I see no big deal in regrinding cams and cranks and then re heat treated again them.

remytherat said
I think it’s probably mostly gone, at least off the base circle. That said, I think the concern is laughable with
1. roller lifters
2. low spring pressure
3. low rpm
4. not very aggressive profile
5. casual use application

The reality is that you never here about regrind roller failures that have anything to do with the cam itself.

In fairness to the company, they totally have a right to not want to take on that risk.

So researching this a bit, the short answer is, they use a diamond tipped tool pressed in to the surface at varying pressures and create a curve of the hardness compared to depth of the indentation left by the tool. Another method is to cut a cross section, an oblique taper, or a stepped cut of the part and observe. Different testing for different methods of hardening, case, surface, etc. The end result is there is no way to tell the depth of the heat treat on a cam without destroying it in the process. Seems to me a company that regrinds cams should be heat treating them after the fact.