Not sure if this will help explain but this is what I know and my understanding of the subject and I think reasonably accurate. All the cam companies people seem to talk about on this forum grind cams. Crower, Comp Cams, Isky, Bullet/.Ultradyne, Howards,LSM, Clay Smith, and dozens of others. Most have CNC cam grinders but are not often used on flat tappet stuff and low production legacy stuff like our Pontiacs. Most of our old, flat tappet stuff is still ground on ancient manual cam grinding machines, some dating back to the days our ancient engines were new. Not necessarily a bad thing at all as long as the masters, and the machinery are maintained and in good shape and operated by people who know how to grind cams! (Old Guys). Very few aftermarket cam companies make their own cam blanks and they would be billet blanks not flat tappet stuff that is cast. LSM makes some billet blanks and Comp makes some. May be a few others. Everyone has to source cast blanks for flat tappet cams and NONE ARE US MADE ANYMORE. They come from China or India, that's it. So if you have a new flat tappet cam ground it may be NOS and MAY be US made. But most likely Chinese or made in India and will have a much higher probability of being a piece of crap. To make matters worse, the majority of these smaller cam companies do not do their own heat treating in house. They send a pile of Cams out for heat treating in a batch to a vendor they trust. But the quality of the heat treatment is hit or miss as well.
So here you are as an end user, or an engine builder, stuck right in the middle of this pissing contest between the core supplier in China/India, the cam grinder, the heat treating shop. A fresh engine full of metal paste from a flat cam and ruined lifters, an angry customer or engine owner and everyone else pointing fingers and blaming each other. It's a bad situation with no 100% solution.
Many say "Why not just go to a roller cam?" That would be a great solution IMO IF they didn't have a long list of their own problems with defective roller lifters. Will try to get the latest updates form ALL the cam grinders at PRI in a few weeks. Best place to get the latest, honest information IMO.
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