[wilcar]

I have a camshaft that I took out of my 455 GTO back in the early 90's and it has been in my parts bin since then. It was supposedly a Ram Air IV copy that the engine builder used. He said it was a Crane blueprint cam. It has part number 900892 on it and 1805 cmc by one of the lobes. I have looked in some old cam books and googled it but cannot find anything close to it. Anybody have any ideas who might have made this cam??? One of my Pontiac friends said it did not sound like a RA IV cam back then and did not perform like one so we installed an Ultradyne 223/231 cam and the car ran a lot better times at the strip.

[Cliff R]

Crane used to make a cam that was very close to the RAIV grind. It had "modern" lobe profiles, a tad more lift, here are the spec's on it, not sure if it's what you have there, but this is an EXCELLENT camshaft for a 455 build with around 10 to 1 compression:

H-296-2 296 304 234 242 .470 .490 112

Unlike most of the "copy cat" camshafts, it actually makes very close to the same power as the RAIV cam with a little better vacuum at idle speed.

I've known several folks to use them in 455 builds and run into the 11's with them with ported iron heads (240cfm).......Cliff

[wilcar]

Hey Cliff, Thanks for the info. I measured the lobe lift on the cam and came up with around .300 or close to it, so would only have around .450 lift with 1.5 rockers so it is anyone's guess what the engine builder actually put in it back then. No big deal, it can sit around another 20 years!! I am running a 9.0 c.r. 455 these days and love the low end power of the Isky small 228-228 108 lsa solid camshaft.

[Cliff R]

You are welcome.

Some some thoughts on this topic.

You can run another full point of compression, 10 degrees more camshaft at .050" on a wider LSA, and make the exact same low end power, and enjoy more upper mid-range and top end power, with the same octane requirements.

We tested and installed one cam in a 455 on a 108 LSA, it sported 247/254/108 specs, and used mildly ported #48 heads. To this day it was absolutely the most BRUTAL 455 engine I've ever test driven on the street. It pulled ALL the power right into the mid-range, and would literally tear your head slam off. Driving that car on the street was like having a HUGE shot of nitrous, as ALL the power was in the 4000-5000rpm range.

Unfortunately, the "felt" power was quite miss-leading. What we were "feeling" was a HUGE transition in power, and a BIG "rush" of power in a very narrow rpm range. At the track the car ran a best of 12.28 at 109-110mph, with 3.73 gears and 4200rpm converter.

We swapped out the cam for Dave's "Road Paver" cam, and replaced the heads with a set of his CNC ported #62's. I was somewhat unimpressed on the first test drive on the street, the engine pulled really hard everyplace, from the instant you loaded it till you decided to shift it, but more like a big locomotive, no "rush" of power anyplace. I really thought that it wasn't going to run any quicker than the old set-up.

At the track, it went 11.40's at 118mph!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much for "seat of the pants" testing and power assessments!....FWIW....Cliff

[screamingchief]

IIRC the Crane 041 blueprint cam part no. is 969681.

It's usually stamped with 968 on the rear face of the cam journal.

All cam ID is usually stamped either on the face of the front/rear cam journal.

OE cams had a letter stamp ID code on the front of the cam,aftermarket cams typically get stamped in the rear.

Any numbers cast into the core itself will be cam core ID numbers,so those wont help.

Pics might help ID this too...

HTH

Bret P.

[NeighborsComplaint]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

Crane used to make a cam that was very close to the RAIV grind. It had "modern" lobe profiles, a tad more lift, here are the spec's on it, not sure if it's what you have there, but this is an EXCELLENT camshaft for a 455 build with around 10 to 1 compression:

H-296-2 296 304 234 242 .470 .490 112

Unlike most of the "copy cat" camshafts, it actually makes very close to the same power as the RAIV cam with a little better vacuum at idle speed.

I've known several folks to use them in 455 builds and run into the 11's with them with ported iron heads (240cfm).......Cliff

I used this cam in my last 2 455 motors. HIT284281. Good strong street cam but had to run a vacuum can for the power brakes. Hard pedal w. little boost w. single plane intake. other than that has good street manners and runs good.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by screamingchief

IIRC the Crane 041 blueprint cam part no. is 969681.

It's usually stamped with 968 on the rear face of the cam journal.

All cam ID is usually stamped either on the face of the front/rear cam journal.

OE cams had a letter stamp ID code on the front of the cam,aftermarket cams typically get stamped in the rear.

Any numbers cast into the core itself will be cam core ID numbers,so those wont help.

Pics might help ID this too...

HTH

Bret P.

Agree, The Camshaft Machine Company camshaft stamped with part number 968 was made on the same machines that made the original camshafts for the limited run RA-IV engines for General Motors (Pontiac). They also made all of the Z-28 camshafts, the Olds 442 camshafts, and the other limited volume GM and Ford Camshafts.

As a Note The camshafts in the time period you mention were MARKETED by Crane as well as Wolverine Blue Racer. Crane just reboxed the camshafts.

Another point, Crane OWNED Wolverine Blue Racer and Camshaft Machine Company (as well as Universal Camshafts). Don Hubbard was the Camshaft Machine Company vice president and the was the guy who wrote the Camshaft Bible that everyone uses. Glenn Corwin was the Chief Engineer. (He was also a "Pontiac Guy") F-Bird.

So you can call it a Crane Blueprint camshaft, a re-issue of the factory camshaft, a Wolverine Blue Racer camshaft, a Pontiac camshaft, or even a Melling camshaft. All made by CMC . SO YOU HAVE THE REAL DEAL SIR.

Tom Vaught

Don Hubbard was also a BOOST Guy and a good friend. (He had Parkinson's at the end).

[wilcar]

Appreciate the input guys. There are no other number or letter stamped codes on the front of the cam or back of it other than the 900892 on the rear face. I sent an email to crane to see if they may have used on some of their white box cams sold to other companies but have not heard back. I looked at a lot of Pontiac cam numbers from the cam companies but none showed anything close to the 900892 number. The 455 was originally built out in Calif but the builder is long out of business, High Performance Injuns, I think. The only reason I am trying to ID this cam is that I have someone interested in it but since I cannot prove who made it and what the specs are I do not want to mislead anyone as to it being a blueprint 041.

[Tom Vaught]

Sounds like your camshaft is not a Blue-print Crane RA-IV camshaft. I have never seen one of those grinds that did not have that number stamped on it.

I was a Wolverine Blue Racer distributor for a few years and had about 20 of those 968 camshafts on the shelf at one time. I think I sold one of the last ones in the last 3 months. Every one of them had that stamp. I inspected each one after buying a camshaft where they had a shift change and left the cam keyway machining not done and moved the camshaft to the next station. Obviously the guy I sent it to had a hard time installing the camshaft.

Tom Vaught