I'm trying to ID this cam. I bought a 350 with block casting #880 which should be vortec truck, zz4, 1 pc. seal roller. I'm going to use this for a 383 build. I thought i'd pull the cam and put in my L03 305. When i pulled the cam the number on the end at the dist. drive gear has 1264 (line break) 1 (line break) 6002. I can't find info on this cam anywhere? I thought it was going to be the zz4 cam but how can I know for sure? Any suggestions?

 

The ZZ4 cam part # ends in 071. So that's not a ZZ4 cam.

If this is a stock Vortec truck motor, it's probably the stock Vortec truck cam. (duh) Not at all the same as the ZZ4 cam, and not at all a performance piece. Most likely that's what it is. Given that there's probably at least 200 times as many truck motors in the world as there are ZZ4s, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how likely it is that it's a truck motor compared to how likely it is that it's a ZZ4.

You can get an idea of the lift by using a micrometer to get a measurement across a lobe the "shortest" way and one the "tallest" way; subtract the 2; and that will give you approximately the lobe lift. Multiply that # by 1.5 to get the "theoretical" valve lift. Measure both an exhaust and an intake lobe. The 1st 2 lobes on the cam at either end are exh, the next 2 are intakes.

IIRC the truck cam has a lift somewhere in the .430" range on both kinds of valves; the ZZ4 cam is .470" / .510". The truck cam is pretty much garbage, about the only one that's weenier is the TBI one.

Doesn't really matter too much what it is though. Just buy the cam you REALLY want. Motors are too expensive to compromise by cheeeeeeeping out on the cam, which is itself one of the cheeeeepest internal parts anyway, and just accepting whatever happens to be there.

 

Thanks for the info... as I mentioned I basically just figured if it WAS a ZZ4 cam then I'd drop it in my L03 until I finish the 383 build (probably next year). I figured a quick cam swap would be a good practice run at a mild teardown and rebuild (cam, timing set, valve springs etc.).

By the way, the L03 is a TBI cam so anything better would be an improvement?

My only problem as I said is that I just can't find any other numbers on the cam to indicate what it is? The numbers in the end of the cam also have what looks like a small square barcode on it, but it doesn't seem to jive with any info I can find?

 

Measure it.

It is what it is, regardless of the part #.

 

OK, as you said it looks like the truck cam. both lobes measure the same and come up around the .428 range based on my readings.

Thanks for you help.