For the Flathead cam experts wondering if someone can help me identify this cam. No grinder name and only stampings are 383 and 3/4 R on the snout. I’m ***uming 383 lift with a 3/4 race grind. A friend of mine seems to believe it may be a Clay Smith cam or grind but I’ve yet to find anything that could confirm this . It also has 8BA 6250 on the shaft casting. I don’t have any duration info and by looks it appears to have a lot of duration looking at the flat spot on the peak of the lobe. It came out of an 46-47 59A block that was started on the build process years ago and never finished. Cam appears to also be somewhat never or barely ran or new old stock. Any help I’d gladly appreciate.
While it looks similar to some grinds that I have, it has a pretty sharp edge right before the semi-flat top portion. There is no real way to know what it is - unless somebody knows what the '383' stands for. One could degree it - though that takes a whole engine to put it into. One thing to note, this is a 49-53 cam that has had the "nose" cut off of it and the early distributor "tang drive" added. If they did not plug the oil hole coming from the front bearing surface to the middle of the front of it, it SHOULD be plugged when running it in an earlier engine. Otherwise, it will spew a bunch of oil out the front of it onto the back of the distributor. The 32 - 48 cams did not have or need this oil.
You can call George @ Clay Smith cams to ask, but I serious doubt it is one of theirs. Every Clay Smith cam that I've had or seen always had their name stamped on the snout. Most, not all, Clay Smith grinds for flatheads have lower lift. Looking at the lobe shape and flattop, it looks pretty aggressive and more than a "traditional" 3/4 grind
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