Three places to look at a cam....

The very start of the ramp for the lobe. That section has a gradual acceleration to load up the system. The lift per degree of cam rotation is low.

At .050" lift: Your well into the acceleration part of the cam profile. This is a prefered section for rating cams by most aftermarket cam grinders.

To either side of the cams nose just before the dwell section at the nose.

To get a good understanding of a cam I plot the entire lobe out out for lift VS crank rotation and make a graph of it.

It helps make sense of what the valve is really doing. Also in my experiance getting withing 2? on either cam is as close as you practicly need. Closer is beter but not worth killing yourself over.

Basicly if I was testing a cam at the track and I advanced it 2? it would be very heard to tell any thing had changed. At 4? you can measure a differance in performance.

When I was testing cams in my 340 Dodge I would start with the cam straight up and even lash on the intake and exhaust. Then open up the intake lash to see how less duration affected it. Close the intake lash down and open the exhaust up.

Advance the cam and re run the test.... Four cams later.

Every cam got its lobes profiled. You can find some interesting differances in the lobes from cam company to cam company.

One change is on flat tappet cams many after market Mopar cams were ground with a Chevy profile. What does tha mean? Chevy small blocks have a smaller tappet and could only take so many degrees of lift per degree of cam rotation at the start of the lobe.

Since getting the valve off the seat quickly is critical to making the most power for a given cam duration this is not the right direction.

Roller cams I bought had the same lame profile!

Once I changed cam vendors I got a bit more agressive profile and better performance.

What is the point of this? Getting the lobe profile for your cam is great information and I would like to do the same for the non roller cam in the 2.6 and the 3.0.

I want to get a feel for what Mitsubishi was using for cam profiles in its motors. It is possible to get the cams reground and it helps to know the starting points.

Would you be up for plotting a couple of cam lobes?

Kevin