Comp Cams Lies to Better Business Bureau

[Silverback51]

Just did a quick search on the Comp Cams site to see if they refer to the cam material and hardness in their spec pages. Could not find anything.

By the picture it's easy to see that it's a billet material cam. Did any of the information they sent with the cam include the material specs?

It would be real interesting to have the hardness tested. I would do it on the shaft area between the distributor gear and the first cam lobe. Then I would test it on the cam lobe surface also.

It could be a heat treat issue. If so, it would not have mattered what gear was used, it would fail regardless.

[AC Cobra]

If I can come to Mike’s defense here. Back in 2006 I had a similar problem with my CompCam billet steel cam (Hydraulic Roller 35-426-8) in my 351W.

Out for a drive one sunny day and it stopped running. Had it towed home and discovered the cam gear was striped. I discussed the problem with my engine builder. He called CompCam and discussed the problem with them. He told me to remove the cam and give it to him. He sent it to CompCam and they replaced the cam with the comment that they had received a bad batch of cores from China.

CompCam highly recommended that I use the “Carbon Untra-Poly Composite” distributor gear that CompCam had just introduced. They sent it along with the replacement cam. The cost for the distributor gear was $115.69.

I was really shocked that CompCam would replace a “race part”. However, my engine builder said they were replacing it because of the bad batch of cores that they grind the cams from. Of course, he buys several hundred cams from them each year. That may have been the real leverage.

To Mike, I would recommend talking to CompCam about which batch your cam came from. It may be the same batch my cam came from. In that case you may get some satisfaction. Also, the Carbon Untra-Poly Composite distributor gear solves all the questions about which distributor gear, steel or bronze, to use.