I purchased my 68 as it is (engine wise). It has a 1969 350 with camel hump heads. It has a definate "cam" sound to it but I would like to know the specs. Knowing the specs will help me decide on other upgrades.

Question:
Is there any way to find out what my cam specs are without the obvious of pulling it out?

Once again thanks for the help.

If you have a degree wheel, and a tdc stop, you could pull the valve covers and use the degree wheel in the car to "graph" the profile of the cam and figure out what it is, at least very close. It's a pain in the Donkey to do in the car, but thats the only way I know of unless you can get hold of the previous owner and see if he knows.

Ask the PO.

Good luck getting something accurate, unless he has receipts. Be prepared for "a big one", "¾ race", Stage 2", "375 HP", etc.

Other than that, a degree wheel and a dial indicator. http://www.compcams.com/Technical/Instructions/Files/145.pdf Scroll down to about page 5.

That's what I thought. Thanks guys.

Pull the timing cover off and the big timing gear, there are numbers on the front of the cam. It aint easy either.

Some cams have the numbers on the front end, other have them on the back end.

You can measure this without taking anything apart except pulling #1 plug and the valve cover for the same cylinder.

First verify TDC mark on your balancer with the "0" mark on the timing tab. Rotate the motor to make sure the you are at TDC on the firing stroke. Remove the #1 cyl intake rocker to eliminate compression of the lifter plunger. Take a measurement from the top of the pushrod to the top of the guide plate (dial indicator, dial gauge, micrometer) Now rotate the crank until the intake lifter starts to move and turm slowly until you get .050 lift at the pushrod. Measure the distance from the balancer timing mark to the "0" mark on the timing tab. This is your .050 IVO timing. Rotate the motor 180 degrees and the pushrod will be dropping. Continue to rotate until you have reached the previous .050 measurement at the pushrod. Now measure your timing mark in relation to the timing tab "0". This is your IVC @ .050 timing. Repeat procedure on your #1 Exhaust.

Convert the measurement into degrees by calulating the circumference of the balancer (3.142 x diameter) / measurement inches ( 3 decimal places prefered) of open or close timing as were recorded. The more accurate you can get on your measurements, obviously will yield more accurate information to work with. Short of disassembly, this is about as accurate as you can get. If your really ambitious, you can take readings at .050, .100, .200,.300. If you have a dial indicator to work with you can even log the numbers down to .004 -.006. A dial wheel will be much quicker and easier to read once set up, all depends on whether you have one available and if you want to pull the fan, shroud, balancer to get it on there.