Anyone use these products before. The cranks are stated to be "American Made" and the prices all there stuff seems to be pretty good. Would their HD solid roller lifters work well in a street car? Anyone use this stuff?

http://www.primediapowerpages.com/cgi-bin/ePages.storefront/3fe70288001e25ec0000c0a8013a059c/ePages/Customer/Vanity/easy/howardscams

Haven't used their stuff, but they share a street address with Competition Products.

http://www.primediapowerpages.com/cgi-bin/ePages.storefront/3fe7361a001d4e0e0000c0a8013a0578/ePages/Customer/Vanity/easy/competitionproducts

Howards Cams has been around for yrs. Allthough I havent ever used of of their parts either. Personally, I dont think ANY solid roller lifters will work out well for street driving, unless you dont mind changing lifters every 2,000 miles or so. Just call a Cam Company and ask them. I went thru this with a Friend awhile back ... He started asking the Cam companies and got the same answer.
Duane

Mark,

Good parts and tech service. I have been using their products over 5 years now.

Hello mark,
i've order a merlin 540ci with a howards mech roller cam in it,everyone i speak say its real good cam!! graemlins/beers.gif
I want it for street/strip use!

See ya!!!
EDDY merlin.

I just got my Competiition products catalog yesterday and man I have been looking for parts like that for a long time! They seem really straight foward. I like how it clearly state American made or import and the price of the American kit is really not that bad graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Nice to see somebody putting together good prices on American made rotators.

But shipping would kill my but living in Cally!

Howards Cams was originally started by Howard Johansen in the 50s.
Howards son Donnie works for Chet Herbert Cams/ race parts.I keep meaning to ask him how the original buisiness was sold,& why he's not part of it,but I think its a sore subject.
Donnie is currently restoring the Howards "Twin Bear" Top gas dragster.The SB Chevys sit opposed in the frame rails.The engines drive one another with the flywheel(s).

I've been running a set of thier springs/retainers/locks for about 5000 mi with no problems at all so far.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Howard's Cams is owned by Competition Products, which is all owned by one smart guy.

Like headerfire said, Howards' Cams was originally founded by Howard Johannsen in the late 40's or early 50's. The camshaft division was sold to Competition Products a few years ago and the aluminum rod business is still in existance, owned by one of Howard's sons and Roger McMartin. Howard was one of the first, if not THE first to utilize aluminum rods in an automotive engine and the rod factory is still located at the original location on South Main Street in Los Angeles - one rough neighborhood!

Originally posted by hilljack2:
I just got my Competiition products catalog yesterday and man I have been looking for parts like that for a long time! They seem really straight foward. I like how it clearly state American made or import and the price of the American kit is really not that bad graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Nice to see somebody putting together good prices on American made rotators.

But shipping would kill my but living in Cally! -
Just a little info on "American Made"
It does not necessarily mean what it says. If the magority of the labor to finish a product is done in the USA, I don't remember the amount, then it can be called "Made in the USA" In other words you can get an offshore forging & do the majority of the finishing in the USA & it can be called "Made in the USA" :D
While this is not a bad thing it is a little "misleading" sometimes.

hey,
I am running a custom ground solid roller from Howards in my 380ci sbc.

I like it!
they helped me come up with the exact specs and its cut on a small base circle and its a 2 piece core.

The first one they sent was cut wrong so I had to send it back and they had to cut another one. A guy named John at howards helped me when they screwed up and did a very professional job.

I am also running their springs, and retainers, and fuel pump P/R.

So far, this cam has worked great.
I have been running it for about 6 weeks, and so far so good. I dont trailor it anywhere.

My dad and I have just started to tune it in, and my best time so far is a 7.67 @ 89 mph with a 1.74 60' spinning on the launch.

This is in my 72' chevelle, full weight, steel wheels, clutch fan, skinny M/T E.T. streets, water up to the starting line, haha.

I dont see any problems running in the 7.50's with some more tuning/changes, and a good track prep. I have alot of changes/upgrades planned.

talk to ya later, mark

I run one of there very large SBC solid grinds in my 350 and it is quiet. I mean its quiet for a cam of that size. {Its not THAT quiet} Its actually kind of weird. Its a 268/278 @.050 on a 108 l/s. So this thing should THUMP but its rather quiet until about 2500-3000 then it screams. Anyone else have this with there Howards? I talked to a guy at the speed shop who runs there stuff and he said his was kind of the same way but his was a Big block cam. HMMMM.....

We thought my engine would have a very radical lope or idle, but it is alot smoother than we thought.
the power brakes work about half as good as they would with normal cam, and it pulls about 6.5" of vacume at idle.

mine is a solid roller- 260*/264* @.050" .620"/.630" lift-109 c/l with 6* adv.

It has a very awsome sounding loppey idle but nothing out of hand.

talk to ya later, mark

Mark, how did you figure out the cam wasnt right in the first place?

Hey,
The engine I have right now is the first engine I have ever built from scratch. I am only 20 years old, and go to school full time and work part time and can not afford to re-do anything that gets messed up from not building it right, so I did every single thing that I could, except the usual machine work(decking block, honeing, ect).

anyways, I had never degreed in a cam into an engine, but all the cams I have used were small hyd. grinds(268xt. energy, 280 magnum, ect) so we just sorta skipped that step......but not on my stoker.
since it was a custom grind, and so big, I decieded I would give it a try with the degree kit.
I tryed messing with it for several hours and became very frustrated bec. I could not come up with the opening/closing- Lobe centers ect. that this cam should have, so I let my dad try it, and then my neighbor, and we all basicly came up with a intake center line of 94* and alot of other screwed up numbers. I didnt know if we did it wrong or the cam was messed up.

Got ahold of howards, went through the usual questions about how I set up the degree kit, ect. and the guy at howards said "send it back, we can check it on our machine and go from there"
so I did, and he eventualy said that they cut it wrong, and it was really screwed up,cut another one and paid for the shipping, gave me some credit on something I had to send back and sent me a free bronze tip fuel pump push rod.

so I am glad I checked it!
let me know if you want to see my engine specs.

Later, mark

Yeah lets see some specs....

I started another thread...didnt want to hijack this one.
see ya, mark