> What is not clear to me is if you need a special surface treatement
> on the lobes or not, and if there has to be a matching treatment on
> the tappets. From talking with a couple of grinding companies it
> seems that the answers are no and yes respectively.
>From what I've seen and heard, this is an ongoing debate between cam
grinders and their customers. It seems that hardening is not absolutely
necessary with proper break-in and plenty of high quality assembly lube ...
but it does increase the chances of the cam 'living' a long life. Some
respected cam grinders do recommend it ... but generally the high volume
ones don't. I believe Kas Kastner has said that he only had his cams
Parkerized (phosphated), which is not a hardening treatment.
Nitriding is not cheap, it takes time and special equipment to do it right.
Do it wrong, and the shaft will warp, which can destroy a shop's profits in
a hurry. If a lobe does "go away", most of them will try to claim it's due
to improper installation or improper break-in techniques. Since there's so
little consensus on break-in, it's easy to claim you've done it wrong ...
Randall
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