Has anyone here had a cam manufacturer make them a cam or multiple cams for an engine that they've never dealt with before?
Before I go the route of having the base circle reduced, I thought I would call around about having custom cams made for the Mercedes M120 V12. Obviously, most camshaft manufacturers in the US haven't made custom camshafts for this engine, and there are no shelf options. The lobe design is familiar enough, it is basically the same as any DOHC engine that doesn't have rockers/cam followers and uses a bucket (tappet over the spring). The lobe design and firing order is the same as a lot of the more popular inline-6 engines like the 2JZ.
I'm just wondering who here has had luck doing this, and what kind of cost can be expected. I'd be willing to send in my OEM camshafts for measurements. My first quote was $4500, which seemed absurd. Reducing the base circle was considerably cheaper but with the obvious limitations.
It's a lot of work to do it properly, and the material alone is very expensive.
Hydraulic or mechanical? What is the current lift, duration and base circle, and what do you want to do, as far as lift and duration?
Billet material is expensive. I don't need billet. 8620/8660 cam cores are much cheaper. Any company that buys these cores in bulk can get them for a couple hundred bucks. I'm likely converting from hydraulic to mechanical tappets. This is for a toy, not a daily driver.
Current cam specs at imperial measurements aren't known, but they're irrelevant unless I'm doing a regrind of the current lobes (without welding).
Desired cam specs would be in the ballpark of (imperial measurements):
234-240 degrees at .050"
.390-.410" lift.
Exact valve opening/closing numbers and desired peak lift will be determined by final head flow numbers and final compression ratio calculations once the larger valves are installed and the pistons are done (with deck clearance measured after milling). Desired compression ratio is ~12.5:1 to be used on E85 fuel.
Here's some places I've heard of that can do custom cams, although I think they mainly do American V8 stuff - you could contact them to see if they can do Mercedes stuff too (it may be possible to regrind your existing cams, rather than manufacturing something totally new.)
https://www.bulletcams.com
http://jonescams.com
https://deltacam.com
https://www.howardscams.com
Web used to do custom cams and regrinds for DSMs, not sure if they still do custom work.
