More cam crud......explanations please!

[spewey at comcast.net (Spewey)]

Scourge wrote:

> For example "286 degree .436 lift. "Sport Solid Lifter" 13 horsepower
> gain. Aggressive idle."

Take your mouth and start saying, " Bawub-ub-ub-ub-ub-ub-..."
That is your regular idle.  Now put a large jawbreaker or no, no, better 
yet, a golf ball in your mouth and try to do the same thing.  You might 
get a couple good wub-ubs off before the golf ball interrupts your 
tongue and it takes a couple beats to move it over to the side and get 
back on wub-ub track.  This is what happens to a car with a too radical 
cam;  the low-rev flow is irregular enough to get mixed up easily and 
lead to a [euphemistically titled] Aggressive Idle.

> What's the 286? Does this mean the valve will be open for 286 degrees
> of the cam rotation? With a cam like this will the intake/exhaust
> valves have the same lift/duration??

Don't try to grasp everything about cams at once.  Get a mild one and 
try it for a while.  You may never need to know the details if you find 
one you like.  That would mean you could enjoy driving again instead of 
worrying about cam specs.

> I really have no idea, can somebody give me the lowdown on what these
> numbers mean and how they will affect the car while driving??

Stay mild for street and beware of smooth-talkers.  When I used to know 
all this stuff, very few cams were street-tolerable after long periods 
and lots of people were selling unstreetable products.

Good luck!