packick Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 I have a 1955 Century with a stock 322 cid engine. I ordered a new camshaft from one of our vendors today. Their catalog, and other vendors' catalogs, states that the camshaft is the same for all 1955 V-8s. However when I looked the camshaft part number up in the Buick parts catalog, it specifies that there are 3 different camshafts: 1955-40 takes part number 1344580 1955-50, 60 takes part number 1343452 *1955-50, 60, 70 takes part number 1166733 D.F.First of all, what does the asterisk (*) and the D.F. mean? Secondly, why do today's vendors sell just one camshaft for all 1955s where the Buick parts manual says there are 3 different ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean1997 Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 1955-40 takes part number 1344580 - this is for a 264 (manual and auto trans)1955-50, 60 takes part number 1343452 - this is for a 322 with manual trans*1955-50, 60, 70 takes part number 1166733 D.F. - this is for a 322 with an auto trans (D.F. = Dynaflow) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packick Posted October 25, 2012 Author Share Posted October 25, 2012 So with that being said, why do all of the vendors say the camshaft they sell is for both the 264 and 322 (one size fits all)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhigdog Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Most repro stuff is a compromise between cost and quality. Buick could afford to optimize performance by matching cams to engine/trans, spread out over thousands of cars. A repro vendor could never afford that at a reasonable price and so offers a cam that may not be optimal for every engine but will work well enough that the average user would never notice the difference..........Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick man Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Most repro stuff is a compromise between cost and quality. Buick could afford to optimize performance by matching cams to engine/trans, spread out over thousands of cars. A repro vendor could never afford that at a reasonable price and so offers a cam that may not be optimal for every engine but will work well enough that the average user would never notice the difference..........Bob..... Good points, or until you run it with gas-a-corn on a hot day in conjunction with your now improperly curved distributer and carburetor jetting off your improperly spec'd new camshaft. Of course the camshaft you get may be able to be reground if the lift and duration is not correct prior to installation. Of course now you should also install new hydraulic lifters as well or you will be complicating the diagnosis of what is going wrong later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhigdog Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Like I said. The average user will be unaware of the difference as he putts around town....................Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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