Warrior 968 cam?
 

Can anyone confirm that this is a Warrior 968 cam? It came in this box, but I have no way of confirming the contents.

The only thing I can say , or question is that if the stamping on the nose of E77 means it was ground in May of 77 then that was sure the period when Warrior was selling a lot to us Pontiac folks.

Warrior was only second to HO racing back then!

If you have a block with at least the end cam bearings in it you can degree it with a kit to do that.

Even if you new exactly what that cam was and where going to use it, you would want to degree it in anyway and that means having the stuff to do that.

This link will tell you more about Warrior cams:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=807448

In the link attached the last posts asks if their stuff was really that bad.

NOT AT ALL. Basically because it was all "repackaged factory parts" in their company boxes.

The Warrior intakes etc were Tom Nell designed Pontiac parts (cast in aluminum vs
the magnesium material originally used).

I remember driving by the store front and seeing the front glass shot out by
a unhappy customer. Warrior Shop Damage predated the people shooting at Chief's house on the TV by many years.

They were not Pontiac Engineers or Pontiac designers. They were Pontiac part sellers.
Very good sellers at one time. Ray could spread the BS really good.

Dale was ok.

TV

I'll take a WAG based on pic #3 the cam has .540 lift and 233 degrees duration at .050.

Is that a real WAG or is that a real detail? The cam specs on paper are 230 240

Since it is stamped right there between the lobes, I think it's a reasonable certainty.

540233 is just a casting number for the cam blank.

It’s not a stamping, it’s cast into the cam blank.

540233 is also the part number of the #8 389/421 Super Duty solid lifter cam. Quite often you’ll see a camshaft part number used on a camshaft blank casting.

Thank you for clarifying. I'll look up the specs for that cam

The specs for the 540233 #8 cam are kinda irrelevant, they simply ground your cam using the same blank casting. I wouldn’t expect the #8 cam specs to match up with your cam grind. The numbers actually stamped into the rear of the cam will identify it if you can find the data somewhere.

All of those early Super Duty solid lifter cams had low lift lobes with a flat nose. They were intended for use with 1.65:1 or even 1.75:1 rocker arms, with 1.65s the lift was a meager .445” as camshaft technology wasn’t all that advanced back then.

Thread showing the lobes on the 541596 #10 cam for reference:

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...d.php?t=770467

Here’s another example of a cam blank casting number having absolutely nothing to do with the actual lobes that are ground on the cam core.

Pictured below is a cam core casting number 524886. The cam part number 524886 was first used in 1956 on the 2 x 4-barrel 285 hp 316.5 engines and later on other performance engine offerings through 1962.

To continue, the actual cam part number of the cam above is 9770543, identified by the letter stamp ‘L‘ on the nose. The 9770543 was used exclusively on 1963 & 1964 421 HO engines. It was simply ground on the 524886 blank.

Pictured below are the lobes for #1 and #2 cylinders, the letter stamp ‘L’ on the nose (note the triple strike of the stamp) and nothing whatsoever stamped on the back end.

This cam came out of the 1964 421 HO I bought almost 12 years ago, I was actually having trouble identifying it but just now I was able to decipher the ‘L’ stamped on the nose. :)

I’m pretty happy actually because when the engine was delivered to me the camshaft wasn’t included so I asked the seller to locate the original cam and I paid for shipping it, I’m glad to finally know it actually was the rare original 9770543 cam. That triple strike of the ‘L’ identifier really had me scratching my head until now. :thumbup:

A comparison of the 9779068 and the 9770543 specs below, I used a NOS 9779068 cam when I had the 421 HO rebuilt. I tried finding a NOS 9770543 to no avail.

9779068 1965-72 HO ‘S’ 288 adv dur in 113 l/c, 302 adv dur ex 119 l/c, 63 deg overlap 407"/.407” lift

9770543 1963-64 421 HO ‘L’ 293 adv dur in 113 l/c, 301 adv dur ex 119 l/c, 63 deg overlap 407"/.407” lift

I saw the same bullet holes myself Tom.
Or maybe it happened more than once...

Took a drive out to Pontiac to visit the birthplace of my '65.
Had a couple buddies with me.
Had bought many, many things from Warrior over the years prior.

Went in, asked for Ray & introduced myself as a long time customer.
Told him I had just driven out from NH, and wanted to meet him.
He could've cared less.

I left wholly unimpressed with the man.
Folks I was with said the same, remarked on the bullet holes.

Can say Warrior did supply me with good parts though the years.
Couldn't ask for more than that.

Thanks 3X24SPD, a PY Member posts stuff at times and people say: "No, that did not happen". Always nice to have a second verification.

I remember when Warrior was selling the factory RA-IV cams for over $200 per cam and I bought 10 cams from the actual supplier
of the cams for $18 each. I sold the cams for $80 and everyone was happy. I paid the shipping. The "L" camshaft was a very rare camshaft
in the early 60s. The L cam WAS NOT the "T" RA-IV camshaft. Bart had a rare one.

Tom V.

BUMP. FYI I'm selling this cam with a set of NOS lifters in case anyone was interested. $375. I figure that's a decent deal in the current market since new combos are $500 from Butler, and the new cams are made from junk metal and the new lifters fail regularly.

I still have a box of #852 unused lifters from Warrior.. got them in a complete rebuild kit