thats why you only say it to non-racers :wink:

3/4 cam sounds better then exact details to people that dont know what the details mean.

3/4 race cams are still popular here in MO.

Forgot ;LOL

I always thought it was refering to a cam with at least 325 degrees of duration, the 3 being the hundred and the 25 being the 1/4.
Hence the slang reference of 3/4 cam.
><Cp

3/4 race cam
 

my father-in-law use to build and race flat head ford motors back in the 50's and he told me that there were only a few grinds for them. they didn't use the grind specs. to list the cams. they were like stock, mild,3/4 race and full race. he said thats how you ordered the cam...depending how wild you wanted it. i found an article about the guy who started it.http://www.harveycrane.com/secrets7.htm

Thanks Shorty.I still gotta say,that is just plum wierd :?

3/4 cam
 

most of the guys that i hear refering to cams like that are guys that have family or friends that have raced way back and thats what they grew up knowing. just like pop-up pistons and wrinkle wall slicks. i see the at the track on test and tune or around town on saturday nights crusin'. these guys may not have the best looking cars or the fastest but you know they are very proud of there cars. and they have tons of fun with them. i help them or answer and questions they may ask me, and they appreciate everything you say. i know what there talking about when they call these items what they do and i don't make fun of them or insult them in any way, to hurt there feeling or dampen there spirits. most of them are great guys that would give the shirt off there backs just to help or be a part of your racing world. we all have had to start some where. sorry for rambling on ...jmo.... matt

Re: 3/4 cam
 

You are 100 percent right on everything you said.I wasn't trying to make fun of the term,just never knew what it meant.I mean,I kinda figured what it meant,but never talked to anyone who did.And like you said,I wasn't gonna ask and risk hurting somebody's feelings.The coolest guys at the track are usually the slowest.The big guys get big heads,sometimes.Hope noone took me as poking fun,cause I agree with you all the way.

no i didn't mean you were making fun. everybody on rj seems like good people, i like everybody.

Full Race was for racing only. The thing is that each cam grinder had his own version of a Full Race Cam. #/4 was of course 3/4 the intensity of the Full Rcae. and one not mentioned now days at all was the 1/4 cam. That was wilder than stock and was great for mild street cars, while the 3/4 Race was used in the baddest street cars.

I am suggeting the original poster with the 396 get him a good hydraulic cam that is best for his engine and his car instead of looking for the radical lope. If a rad lope is what you are after, the 305 H is very rad. With that engine if you do install a 305 H it will lope bad but anyone with a bone stock 396 will blow your doors off.

You have what could potentially be a good driving combination and even possibly use 87 or at least 89 octane gasolene with what yoou have mentioned. Don't blow that with a radical cam. Remember that the same mild cam in a 454 will be wilder in a 396. Also know that you already have low compression and the more radical and more overlap the cam has, the effects of a lower compression engine at lower rpms will be that of even lower compression.

Frankly a bad radical idling cam in a low compression engine sounds to anyone who knows engines like a turd. It will be. A bad idling cam in a higher compression engine is what is the turn on. You can still get a little rump and keep your power if you don't go crazy.

Ed