This business about is not just about AMC. As far as a scandal goes, breaking rules seems to happen often enough for a lot of companies. I try to keep ethics and morals intact. I'll make this as concise as I can...
Several years ago, I laid out a pile of various PD cams that I had accumulated, so the sales person with my cam company could examine them. After all, it was difficult to really tell the difference, just looking. I had Estes, Estas, Kolbenschmidt, 'The Red Dot' Billet cam, Febi Bilstein, AMC, and a few more that I can't recall right now...some Chinese CRAP cams...
I said, "John, what is the difference between all of these cams?"
John quipped, "Well, this one says Kolbenschmidt and this one says Febi..."
"That's funny John..."
John continued, "Most of these have been marked by the same green YAG laser. If you look closely,", he separated 4 cams... "not only were these cams made at the same factory, they were made by the same MACHINE."
I was astonished what he said, but looking very closely, John showed me there were two tell-tale signs. One was the chatter of the grinding wheel as the cam turned, it was making a slight scallop line across the face of the lobes. The stone was slightly out-of-balance, so it was making a chatter cut. But the one that really made it apparent was the slight radial movement as the grinding wheel went to the top of the lobe; there were the same lines wandering sideways, like a fingerprint. To look closely, that slight movement was like the signature of the machine. And SOME OF THOSE CAMS, like the Febi, Kolbenschmidt, the 'Red Dot', and most interestingly, the AMC, at that time, were made in Turkey, but the AMC' packaging most distinctly said that cam was 'Made in Spain'. I don't think so... and who knows the producer of AMC's cams now (or anyone else for that matter..).
So, of the pile of cams on my counter, MOST OF THEM were made by one of possibly 3 Turkish companies, no matter what the box says.
The other thing that just makes me shake my head is for anyone to brag, "It's BILLET", which drives me a bit crazy. The initial cams made for the VW PD cam were cast steel, compared to the cast iron for the older ALH and AHU, for example. There were a few companies that made Chill Cast Iron cams for the PD, but honestly, I don't think they ever had any longevity. When the billet cams started to arrive, it was NOT because the billet is better than cast steel is per se, it's because making a cam from billet is CHEAPER.
So, to the other thing I asked John."What is better? Cast Steel or Billet?" To which John snorted, "Billet, Schmillet... It doesn't make any difference."
"You know that 8 lobe cam of yours ?" (meaning the ALH/ AHU cam we get profiled by them...) The company has a custom-built Landis cam grinding machine you walk into, it's so big.
"If we were to make those 8 lobe cams from billet, from the time the chunk of steel comes out, to the time it drops off, ready to harden, would be 2 minutes."
WHAT THE HECK!?! So, here is the real reason for billet cams, and IT IS NOT ABOUT QUALITY. IT'S BEAN-COUNTERS, BUILDING YOUR CAR! A billet cam is much quicker to build and meets much closer to the 'Just In Time' approach companies like BMW have been trying to use, reducing their inventory of 'on hand' parts., as that becomes a tax burden. They want the part to show up 'just in time' to put it into the car.
The only difference in hardening is not that one is harder or better, but when cast, the grain structure becomes 'directional', meaning as the molten metal goes into the mold, the molten metal will 'freeze' against the perimeter of the mold, making a smaller crystalline structure, as smaller grain on the external parts of the cam lend to reduced potential of cracking. Some might argue this is better.
But John said when either the billet or cast cam is properly hardened, there is no difference in life-expectancy. I have to agree, as we have been using billet cam stock for about 8-9 years.
Now let's get down to that word, BILLET: In this case, the definition is 'a bar of metal'. It doesn't even have to mean STEEL. It is not magic. It is just steel.
And the other word which is overused; FORGED. To whit, you don't make a FORGED BILLET cam. That is someone spewing who doesn't know what he's talking about. Forging is to heat up the billet hot enough to be malleable and then hammer or squeeze the metal into shape. These billet are machined to shape. Casting is done in a mold with the material liquid.
So, every single cam that was on my table, including a POS Chinese cam, was made by using billet. And the ONLY reason it's billet is when you compare what it takes to make a cast steel cam, better or not, is very time-consuming, more dangerous and although the casting might make a superior product, the machined billet cams are wildly quicker to make. The additional benefit; I would guess that same billet material would be able to produce 95% of the all cams produced today.
Production time comparison: The billet piece drops off of the machine ready to harden in about the same amount of time it takes to pour a casting.
The other lobes look fine..
