[78 monte]

OK,I've selected and installed a few cams in my day and know how each lift,dur,lobe sep,etc.. effect an engine.Im pretty confident I known how to match a cam to an application.
I'm often told when building an engine I should get "the 3/4 race cam".I hear this term often and usually don't listen.I just select the cam I feel is best suited to my combo + usage.
Now I've been meaning to ask this for about 7yrs."3/4 race cam" what the hell does that mean anyway??????

[4 Jaw Chuck]

It was a term to describe camshafts that were mostly for racing and did not describe any particular cam. Today using the term is just BS unless your trying to impress someone. Way back when there was not a huge choice of cams that you could buy so one manufacturer would have a only a few cams to choose from for each engine, this is how the term got coined, absolutely useless today when you consider how many types each mfg makes for each engine.

[FASTFORD]

i believe this term was used for race cams in a flathead motor. not 100% sure about this as i`m not that OLD. as 4 jaw said, it no longer applies to the newer motors,so if they are not talking about a flathead,they are giving someone a line of bull.

[Tom]

4jaw is on the money,long ago the cams came as stock, street, 3/4 race,and race, meaning no improvement over stock,better but not killer,hot street stick, and overkill

[willys36@aol.com]

I run a true 3/4 race cam in my daily driver '36 Willys gasser w/ 354 Hemi! I got it in the mid '60s from J. C. Whithney. I have no idea what the specs are - they didn't say. As others say above I could have gotten a stock, street, 3/4 race or full race cam. That is exactly how they were listed in the ad witha a one line description of how they would perform in the car. One big sales pitch in cam ads in those days was "flame hardened lobes" - wouldn't flatten with use as easily as 'cheap' cams.

[wellcontrol]

This is all true.But there are still some idiots
out ther who try to lie and say its street,
1/2 race,3/4 race,full race.so be careful cuz
somebody tried to pull this crap on me
before and all i got was a stock chevy 350 cam.
Some guys use this lingo cuz they think you don't
know what they are sayin.

[HeavyChevyonDubs]

Thank you 4 Jaw most of these people that use the term 3/4 race cam are 3/4 full of ****. Not to say that was a bad question from 78 monte he just didnt know what it meant but if I hear 3/4 race cam again im gonna go crazy on somebody

[boogie]

there is a thing called 3/4 race cam and i love it...if you can still get one...i have one its a super 3/4 race wd 312 dur 465 lift 230 at .50 by cam dynamics part no.10018 and is like the 78 hot rod said the sweetist small block you ever hear at the drive end in the 60s...ive hade mine fore 20 years.. i finly put it in my chevy motor moter last year ,i first heard of it when i bought a pontiac engine in 1980 he said it had a 3/4 race cam took it home put rings and bearings in it and its the sweet sound i read about so i ordered 1 fore a small block kept it till 2001 and finly got to us it man it brings back some memorys form back when then i found the hot rod mag with a pic of a 57 chevy and a 78 z-28 and it said the sound of the 60s are back 3/4 race w/d 2 profiles 2200-5200 and 3200-6200 the sound is the best w/d out giving up to much for the street so whats a so lets ask all none believers what kind of cam do they have??? well if thay have a CRANE ENERGIZER 286H or 302H thats the new vertion the old one was 300 and 312 adv dur thanks .........

[Homeslice]

Well maybe if you'd stop livin' life a quarter mile at a time you'd have figured it out by now?? I gotta go measure some garages now....see ya Sammy!!