Recently I've been shopping online for cams. My exposure to different manufacturers has brought up a few questions, the greatest of which is price. For example, the Howard's cams on Summit Racing, for a Ford 300, cost about $139. They are parkerized, which seals up the pores of the metal, and under go a Rockwell process which detects weaknesses or flaws. The Isky cam of approximately the same size/dimensions/stats, costs $220 about.

When the cost is so low it makes me be concerned about the quality. Or is Isky just high on the cost?

 

So, I've been digging around the net. It seems it has long been suspected that Comp has been buying their blanks from The Evil Empire. I've also read of many problems with their lifters failing. Are other companies with low prices doing the same. And still flying the 'made in the USA' flag?

It brings up an interesting question. Comp is the least expensive cam co. Are they the most popular b/c of price? I guess so. The question is who is willing to pay more for quality?

 

Well, Comp wouldn't be the most popular cam company if they had significant issues with quality control and product failure. Being the most popular means there are more opportunities for problems after installing one of their cams.

On the other hand, if there is a problem you also have to consider the extent to which human error played a role. Improper installation (were the lifter bores cleaned so the lifters can rotate freely, was there sufficient lubrication), improper component selection, improper break-in...there are plenty of variables a manufacturer can't control.