• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Flat tappet availability getting worse.

Curiousyellow71

Curiousyellow71

FBBO Gold Member
FBBO Gold Member
Local time
1:33 PM
Joined
Jun 18, 2019
Messages
1,968
Reaction score
3,127
Location
Nebraska
Following this on another forum. Interesting and sad. Does not look good for American made flat tappet cams. For those that don't know CWC is pretty much the last U.S. camshaft core provider...at least that is my understanding. The near future there will be a shortage until cams cores are sourced elsewhere. The owner of Bullet and some engine builders are trying to get the word out at least.
Screenshot_20210710-153131_Chrome.jpg
 
Last edited:
Curiousyellow71 said:
Following this on another forum. Interesting and sad. Does not look good for American made flat tappet cams. For those that don't know CWC is pretty much the last U.S. camshaft core provider...at least that is my understanding. The near future there will be a shortage until cams cores are sourced elsewhere. The owner of Bullet and some engine builders are trying to get the word out at least.
View attachment 1136040
Click to expand...

Crap!
 
The company has been in business for 108 years but they have been dealing with the epa over soil contamination. Or in other words that is why we have a current cast camshaft shortage to make flat tappets. Epa had them shut down.. There website has a lot of information. I love me a big roller cam... until I price it all out.:eek:
https://www.kautex.com/en/automotive/cwc-textron-castings
 
If CWC is claiming the cast-core v8 stuff for all makes is only 5% of their business, then I'd say it's a fantastic opportunity for someone else to step in and grab that market.
It reads to me that CWC is simply no longer interested in being bothered to produce cast cores when they have all those "industrial contracts". I'm sure they'd all love for everyone to have no choice besides the more expensive billet core stuff..
 
Hope my motor hold together for the next 50 year's. Because I wont be around then. LOL.
 
beanhead said:
30%...? So where are the other 70% of cam cores coming from I wonder?
View attachment 1136194
Click to expand...
Yep, if someone falls in the foundry and gets smelted..they likely would just keep going. I guess one of the higher quality companies is called Estas is in Sivas, Turkey they make cams for fiat, cummins, Peugeot, vw, cat,, etc. And China supposedly has 300 foundries capable of casting cams...or more likely disposable walking sticks with lumps on them.
 
Last edited:
:rofl: That is the reality now day's. Why don't we just make it here I would pay a little more just to say it was made in the USA.
 
Have someone turn one from a billet?
 
DeltaV said:
Have someone turn one from a billet?
Click to expand...
There are billet cams available for roller cams, I haven't heard of a shortage. But the cost of a billet cam is more then twice that of a flat tappet cast iron cam. Then you have to run a bronze gear typically and buy roller lifters. There are solid flat tappet billet lifters available. But for the low dollar build none of those things are what I want to drop in a low compression 440 to go play. I don't know the status of billet flat tappet cams other then they are used in high end racing applications. Found one post from Harold Brookshire from many years ago.
Screenshot_20210711-064416_Chrome.jpg
 
Last edited:
Now we are going to search those salvage yard's for cranks and cam's. Bet the price is going to go up. We got my crank and turned it 20 thou. over stock. Got my cam from comp. But that was a year ago. My engine builder said that he cant find any now. Comp. Say's they can't even find any for regrind.
 
So, can we just get rid of the EPA. Bunch of worthless fucks anyways. Problem solved.
 
blue69runner said:
Now we are going to search those salvage yard's for cranks and cam's. Bet the price is going to go up. We got my crank and turned it 20 thou. over stock. Got my cam from comp. But that was a year ago. My engine builder said that he cant find any now. Comp. Say's they can't even find any for regrind.
Click to expand...
I think the price is going to have to go up.

You would think Comp would have resources to figure it out. But, it doesn't look like they have yet. Lunati cams has nearly disappeared from places like Summit. Makes me wonder if they are about to go the way of Crane, which barely exists now. Crane, Lunati and Comp cams are owned by the same company. But still gave us some different options when they were run independently.
Regrinding cams isn't that expensive, but to gain lift it has to be taken off the base circle. Then going through the hardness is the next issue.
 
Last edited:
Kind of appears when the boarders of countries shut down due to the virus North American OEM companies turned to CWC and asked them to increase production for them. Their answer was sure, but didn’t increase production, they shifted it to the OEMs needs and stopped making cast iron cores. They kicked us to the curb in the process. It sounds like CWC has tangled with the EPA in the past. EPA certainly makes it tough to get into that industry. But this sure looks like corporate cronyism giving us the finger.
I would hope it shouldn’t take to long for a company to pick up the slack. If that claim was right, and 5% of that 200K cams per week, I.e. 10,000 cast core per week, would think that would be a opportunity for some one. Hopefully someone in the US.
 
Roller Cams are fine..... GREAT in fact !
as long as people understand that with the Mechanical Rollers there are 'STREET" Roller profiles.... and RACE Roller profiles.... the distinction should be obvious for longer term V/Spring reliability of the latter when used in the former environment.

I won't go there on "Hydraulic" Roller Profiles for BB Mopars with their short Lifter Bores/LOW intersecting Oil Gallery... which IMO is only kidding yourself.

But alas....
it's NOT 'just' CWC Cast Cam cores going away for these old engines ?
Bearings ?
Heads ?
Intakes?
the list goes on and on....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Richard Cranium
Jay Leno on Electric Cars, Hydrogen Fuel, Space Travel—and His Recent Accident
2
Replies
22
Views
3K
JR_Charger
J
arsinist01
Flat tappet vs roller....opinions?
2
Replies
39
Views
7K
67 B-body
67 B-body
Meep-Meep
The Cancer Factory
2
Replies
39
Views
5K
steve from staten island
S
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top