item no 4647850878 on Ebay, not mine..........

Tjerk

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.

Isky roller cam lift with 1.76 rockers is .593. Use BB chevy valve springs as there is great selection of high lift springs that require no modification to fit heads. Some aftermarket pistons need to be checked and notched for clearence. FE solid roller rockers work fine.

"Isky usually published the valve lift spec using a 1.5:1 rocker ratio. People would assume that they had a 1.5:1 ratio and put in the cam. If they were using a 1.76:1 rocker the extra lift could cause a problem with spring coil bind and valve to piston interference. It is really that simple. If they would have checked these basic issues before starting the engine they could have solved the problem first."

The above is from an E-Mail from Ken Heard of OREGON CAM GRINDING.

I have exchanged a series of E-Mails with this gentleman over the last two days and have learned a lot regarding the early cams and regrinding profiles. I will share this with you guys in another post.

This is a step of degreeing in a camshaft, but mentions cam manufacturers specs at advertised lift;

NOTE: Many cam manufacturers provide .050" lift cam timing information. To check this, reset the dial indicator to zero with the lifter at zero lift.

Then rotate the crank in the clockwise direction until .050" lift is shown othe indicator. Note the intake open degrees.

Then proceed clockwise until the intake closing at .050" lift is reached.

Compare the readings to the cam card. Together with the maximum lift information, this data will tell you where the cam is degreed. Once corrections are made, measure the cam timing once more to verify the fix was correct.

I had been told that the FE roller lifters will work. I know the size is the same. In-fact, way back when, I used to exchange these Isky roller lifters between the two engines. However, the old Isky lifters were not connected together in a solid fashion. They used a slide method (female on one lifter, male on the other)therefore lifter bore spacing wasn't an issue. Does anyone here know for sure that using todays roller lifters that are connected together will work (is the bore spacing the same between an FE and a MEL?)

CRANE rollers are interchangeable. But you need a roller cam.