Shut up chris!!!
you have a very valid question, cuz regrinding a cam would do nothing more than decreace lift/duration, by taking away material from the cam u would be lowering the profile, thus in some cases decreasing power
if i am wrong mr.200 please correct me , but i dont see how u can increse lift/duration without adding material?
kind like saying by cuttin 2 inchs of your dick off yur gonna gorw in size by 4 inches
the onlly posssible way to do what your sayin , and its a method that is very seldom used is to get the cam towers line honed down closer to the head surface, therefore requiring the cam tower caps to be shimmed with offset bearings, a method that will yes cost u about $200 US to grind down(unless there is a local machine shop that can do grinds) but with the added cost of precisely maching the head to accept those cams would abosolutely be a worst chocie than getting a fresh grind from billit,still leaving u with the fact that u can never use another cam in that head incase u want to go bigger or better
but please if im wrong explain to me how what your saying will work MR.200
Doesn’t take an engineer to figure that one out, I am in business, I don’t
think its possible.
What H said makes sense, but why go to all that trouble when you can
order an HKS? Your turnaround will be much less, your downtime will be
much less, your overall cost will probally be around the same, and you’ll
be assured the cam is perfectly made.
Is it really worth all the hassle to do it custom when theres SEVERAL
applications for our motors from HKS alone. There are also cams from
Tomei, GREX (GReddy), A’PEXi, etc.
Maybe I’m just synical because I HATE CUSTOM work, but I’d go the tried
tested and true way. Stick to the good stuff. Do it once, do it right.
DO IT JDM YO
It’s kind of a weird concept to wrap your head around.
What they do is change the radius on the bottom. A standard regrind takes material off the back side of the cam lobe to increase effective lift. This requires that the additional lash be taken out by adjusting the rocker arm screw. A hard weld adds material to the front of the lobe and does not require any adjustment to take up lash, bacause there is no additional lash, the closed position of the lobe is unchanged.
It sounds drastic, but realistically, the material being removed is very small … like 0.010"
Since we have mechanical valvetrain, we just lash the cam down more. A step everyone should do anyway (ever wondered why your KA chatters at idle?). Because the vavletrain sits lower now, the effective lift is increased.
For hydraulic valvetrains, or severe regrinds to race spec, they add material and regrind it.
You can’t go crazy, but you wouldn’t want to unless you were building a ridiculous NA car.
But when the options seem limited to running 2 exhaust cams or suckling at the aftermarket teat to the tune of $2000, there is an intermediate solution. The work required is the same for swapping in exhaust cams, so why not swap something in that’s going to make a difference if you want to go to that effort. You need air in the high RPMs for flow and spool, and to take advantage of enlarged ports. A stock cam will fall flat under 6,000 rpm. Why not upgrade to a cam that better suits your motor and turbo’s range?
Mr 200,
I am not going to get into the numbers in question. Regrinding cams is a viable option in many cases. However, it is not necessarily going to get you the same profile as an aftermarket cam. What I am saying is the regrind profile is LIMITED.
It sounds like you had a little conversation with your cam grinder and he told you “everything about cams”. Lash the cams down, what are you talking about? The cam is fixed and there are hydraulic lifters in an SR and KA. They are NOT solid lifters, no screw. You can put shims in though, you might want to reword your post to better reflect that.
I understand you are trying to save people some money on cams but the savings really isn’t that much IMO. A new HKS cam is 200US, a V8 cam is just under that, problem is an SR has two of them to buy so 400US, not 2 grand. Your regrind costs 200 you claim, more I bet if you had to add material. So you are roughly at half price, less shipping both ways, downtime, etc. On top of that it is difficult to get a new bearing surface on a regrind. The point: There are cases where a regrind is a great solution and others where the difference in cost can be easily justified by the decrease in risk and wait time.
I realize you are trying to help people but trying to talk the “lingo” and using “buzzwords” in the wrong way does not help people get a better understanding.
Can I put VTEC Cams on My KA?
They both have two cams and 4 cylinders…
I want to go mmmmmmmmmBAAAAAAAA!!!
^^ you need Ferrari cams. Instead of two stages they have unlimited. The cams slide up and down on a rail and are cut three dimensionally so they are always at optimum lift and duration.
^ Are you serious? That’s f*ing insane… and here I was hoping to one day top VTEC by inventing… 3TEC! Turns out Ferrari had owned my ass a long time ago 
Buzz words. How exactly are you supposed to talk about valvetrain selection without buzz words? "uhm … the shaft, with the sort of ovoid protrusions, that … spins. You want it more taller … with more “open longer”.
The valvetrain on the KADE is in fact mechanical, not hydraulic. It’s hard to have hydraulic solid lifters 
Whether you’re adding shims or not, you are setting the lash. It’s really not that big of a deal. Hard welding is rarely necessary without going massively over the stock grind.
A lot of aftermarket cams ARE regrinds.
V8 cams are dirt cheap for the sake companies have been making them for 30 years.
Hahah, I thought we were talking about cams for the KA, no one even seems to make them. More for the case of regrinds.
You do know that to run the HKS 272s in an SR you need to change the lash too right? In fact for the “stage III” you need to run HKS’ Lash Killer Kit (mechanical pivot) which is $575 US. And shims.
So there’s $1005 US … plus shipping, handling, duty, and the valve springs which HKS wants $265 for. Hmm … that seems a lot closer to $2,000 cdn.
No I didn’t just “have a chat with my cam grinder.” I wanted a cam, the aftermarket was non existant, so I talked to my cam grinder about options.
Heh, lucky for you Nissan decided to take a dump in your rocker cover and call it a valvetrain.
This is about the last I’m going to have to say on this. If you want to come out and try and throw a wet “aftermarket” blanket on it … go ahead.
Simple fact is regrinds are an option you should look into. A cam grinder isn’t going to just look at a cam and free hand it from there. They use very exact tolerances, on lathes, with computer generated profiles. One spin and he knows the limitations of the cam you have provided him. From there he will tell you what HE can do to improve on that. He also will already have all the clearances of your head in the computer, and will know how far he can go. Places like Colt will give you a few options. Usually one cam that is an RV/Tow grind (yeah, sorry … they’ve been grinding domestic cams for so long they didn’t bother inventing new lingo). This is a mild grind just to make the stock profile a bit more agressive. Street/Strip again, slightly bigger but usually a “No mod” cam. Then they offer a race cam. If it will require machining, they’ll tell you.
If you want to spend $2000 … go right ahead. If you want to spend $10,000 go ahead. If money is a factor, I recommend looking into regrinds instead of dealing with a lame duck valvetrain that doesn’t even want to be revved to the powerband.
Or you run a Tomei solid pivot setup for 150 some odd dollars, and choose the valve springs you want that would be cheaper and more easily available, depending on your setup…
mr200 you’d still need solid lifters, shims and valve springs if you found regrinds with the same specs as the hks step 3 272 cams.
You’d be stupid to buy regrinds when hks cams are $200 US brand new.
On the KA if you buy regrinds you need to buy new shims, which pdm used to sell for $16 US ontop of the cams, and you need 8 of them. Untill they stopped selling regrinds.
Alright, first off, my bad about the hydraulic lifters. I thought we were talking about an SR but threw a KADE into the mix as being the same when I have not recently had one apart. The KAE IS hydraulic, so is the SR. SO, on a KADE all the lash is adjusted with shims only, my mistake, talking 272 just made me think SR.
I realize there is a lash killer kit, that’s not a cost difference. If you are going to need it for an HKS 272 step 3 then how are you not going to need it for a regrind that is “close” to the HKS version?
Hard welding is rarely necessary without going massively over the stock grind.
Ok, now define “massively over the stock grind”. Does an HKS 272 work without welding? How “big” can you go before you need to add material? (I have no idea, sounds like you do though).
No I didn’t just “have a chat with my cam grinder.” I wanted a cam, the aftermarket was non existant, so I talked to my cam grinder about options.
I thought we were talking about the possibility of getting a cam that is already being made by after market companies cheaper by regrinding a stock cam?
Simple fact is regrinds are an option you should look into.
Agreed.
A cam grinder isn’t going to just look at a cam and free hand it from there.
Also agreed.
They use very exact tolerances, on lathes, with computer generated profiles. One spin and he knows the limitations of the cam you have provided him. From there he will tell you what HE can do to improve on that. He also will already have all the clearances of your head in the computer, and will know how far he can go. Places like Colt will give you a few options. Usually one cam that is an RV/Tow grind (yeah, sorry … they’ve been grinding domestic cams for so long they didn’t bother inventing new lingo). This is a mild grind just to make the stock profile a bit more agressive. Street/Strip again, slightly bigger but usually a “No mod” cam. Then they offer a race cam. If it will require machining, they’ll tell you.
See, with that sentence you say exactly what you don’t like about aftermarket companies. You say you don’t want to put an aftermarket blanket on it but then you talk about how your grinder will give you certain “steps” of a regrind. How is that any different from buying an HKS step whatever? You are leaving the decision up to the regrinder as to what will best suit your needs as much as everyone else who orders cams from HKS or whomever. I fail to see the difference.
I am all for getting custom grinds like you can for a domestic, they’ll do whatever you want for about the same price. Takes time, lots of research and a lot of trial and error to see what YOU like. Some people prefer a different sweet spot in their engine, leaving that decision up to the original grinder vs re-grinder is the same thing. If you have the time to get a bunch of different cams reground in incremental ways then go for it, I think it would be brilliant. To me, unless you are going to dedicate a lot of time and money to test several different grinds you are only relying on hearsay, what someone else thinks is best. How do you know they are right? Hell, how do we know HKS is right? There has to be a comprimise with an HKS as well, the question is does that work for your particular setup… I don’t know, but I tend to favor a company that has been making a cam for a certain engine (KA,SR) over a company that regrinds for several engine designs.
If money is a factor, I recommend looking into regrinds instead of dealing with a lame duck valvetrain that doesn’t even want to be revved to the powerband.
No one ever said a different cam was a bad idea, we are talking about the difference between a regrind and a new cam with different dimensions. More specifically that you could get the same sort of cam an aftermarket company makes from a reground stocker for a lot cheaper. I may now be confused about what we are talking about, let me know if things have changed somehow.
Why did they stop?
Why did they stop?[/quote]
Because regrinds are ghetto, and they sell brand new ones instead.
^^^ As Radim would put it Bootleg?
Exactly.