[bajagold70]

Ive been racking my brains trying to verify the grind of a camshaft I received in a swap.
It is supposedly a Melling 068 R/A 3 grind. It looks as if a gorilla stamped the ID over
a previous number.
28-19-0 have a look. Can anyone tell me what this is.
thanks !

[b-man]

Might help to compare the look of the lobes, the '068' lobes have a pretty distinct look to them. Those stamped numbers are a mess.

'068' cam thread:http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=765522

Intake lobe.



Exhaust lobe.

[Tom Vaught]

The number you want to compare with is the 3 digit number on the top of the camshaft "878" A RA-IV camshaft would have a different 3 digit number (I believe 968) as would the 744 Camshaft.

Tom V.

[Held for Ransom]

My old Warrior cam had the 878 stamped on it.
I don't understand the stampings other than 28 is for a Pontiac. And, I thought the last set of numbers was the year ground.

B-man, here is my old Crane Cams cam card.

[Tom Vaught]

Crane Cams owned Camshaft Machine Company (who actually ground the camshafts) for Crane, Wolverine, and other companies.

You can see in the cam card 96 then the 878 followed by the 1 (flat tappet camshaft I believe). I also believe the 96 was a designation for Pontiac Camshafts.

Hope this helps.

Tom V.

ps Melling and Camshaft Machine Company are right down the street from each other in Jackson, Michigan.
No reason to have two OEM camshaft companies that close. I have visited CMC and Melling.
I saw CMC making a lot of camshafts and Melling making a lot of oil pumps, if you get my drift.
If you call them up they say 'WE make our own camshafts'. The "WE" being CMC and Melling.

[steve25]

Do you have a dial caliper?

If so measure the smallest OD of the base circle , and the measure the overall lobe height and then subtract the two.
If the difference is about .273" then it's not the RA4 grind and likely a factory grind.

You can't always use the RAIII and 068 Cam in the same breath as you did, as for quite a while during the 69 production year the manual tranny cars got the 744 Cam while the autos got the 068!
The 744 Cam needs 3.55 gears as a minimum.

In the same vein is the no A/C thing with 69 and 70 Cars with RA4 motors.
Due to the standard 3.90 gears that came with the RA4 cars , A/C could not be had.

Over the years I have seen atleast 5 supposedly factor RA4 cars with factory A/C and just walked away chuckling !

[bajagold70]

Measured the total diameter less base circle
I get .0273.

[steve25]

Well then it could be the 066" 067 or the 068 Cam, that's about all your going to know without slipping it into a block and degree check on it!

The only certain thing I can tell you from your picture here is that it the Cam has the nice wide factory / Mellings type lobes , that unfortunately near all aftermarket Cams do not!

This all being said still helps you not in figuring out what factory Cam it is though.

If you have a buddy at a parts store who can order in a 068 so you can compare and he then send it back , thats about the only other way I can think of in regards to finding out what it is!

[Kenth]

The cam in question is clearly a Crane Blueprinted "S" camshaft #968781, stamped 878 at rear.
Got one in my 1966 GTO Tripower.
Green paint dab at the rear and red paint dab in front.

[Tom Vaught]

Crane unfortunately closed doors for a while, a few years ago.

But back in the Harvey Crane Days, he had some really talented people working on camshafts for him. He also owned Universal Camshafts, (a distributor), Owned Camshaft Machine Company, owned Crane Cams, and employed people like Harold Brookshire and Don Hubbard as executives in his company. But both guys were reaL CAMSHAFTS EXPERTS just like Harvey Crane (RIP to all 3 gentlemen).

Thank you Kenth for the final verification for the OP.

Tom V.