The trouble with these cams is as follows from an earlier post;
"Heys guys, just a caution for you on using NOS cams for the MEL. When I say NOS, I am refering to original grinds from the late 50' to late 60's. Especially on FE or MEL engines. When the MEL and FE engines were first introduced in 1958, most, if not all, cam grinders and certainly Isky ground roller cams to fit 1.5 rocker arms only. They did not have the technology at the time to grind roller cams for higher ratios. It had to do with cam ramp speed, lifter climb and drop rate and more fancy words that I have no clue about. The FE's and the MEL's came stock with 1.76 rockers. This caused a problem so Isky and other grinders built their own 1.5 rocker arms to fit these engines. Later in the very late late 60's and 70's the technology increased and cams were then ground for these higher ratio rockers. Actually, a grinder named Giavonni in Florida came up with the technology. It soon spread. Now here is the warning....if you use one of the NOS grinds, you need to use 1.5 ratio rocker arms and not the 1.76 ones if you want correct geometry. I have talked to several old racers including Garlits and two well known cam grinders about this and their response was "use 1.5 rockers". If you use 1.76 you will certainly get more lift which is not bad, but even if you insure their is no spring issues, you will likely have serious wear problems due to the geometry. Especially at above 5000 rpms. I know of at least two people who are using a NOS (early 60's grinds) cams from Isky in a MEL and an FE with 1/76 rockers. Both have had no problems to date, but both keep the engines under 5000 rpm since theirs are street cars with very mild hop ups. We did try, way back when, to use the 1.76 rockers with our Isky roller by using adjustable pushrods. We wanted the higher lift. It turned out to be a disaster. We broke rockers, bent about a gazillion pushrods, ruined many lifters and finally ruined the cam. Now the trick is to find a set of old Isky 1.5 rockers. I found two sets, but it took a year. Ain't it fun running a MEL?
BPerrenot"
From his description, it sounds like it is not worth the investment to make the conversion without the specialty ISKY rocker arms.
Need an early ISKY catalog to maybe figure it out. Not even sure about being able to regrind correctly.
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
