I took the camshaft out of my car last nite and now wanted to measure the lift of it.... I know, I probably should have left it in... But I have a funny feeling that something wasn't right!!!! (Poor Performance...)

The measurement from base-circle to Nose was the same as my LPE Cam so I know that I'm doing something wrong and there's more to it....

Is there a simple way of doing it without putting the cam and timing chain back on???

I have a micrometer, and a deflection gauge with magnetic base...and a degree wheel

But was hoping that I could figure out my lift without re-assembling everything!!!!

Please Help

 

I think that I figured it out.......

I measured the base circle by taking my micrometer to the horizontal cross section to find out how wide it was , then measured the lobe top to bottom. When I was done I subtracted the base circle measurement from the lobe nose measurement and Whalla. I had my cam lift....

I cross referenced my technique on the LPE cam and it works...........

 

That's a valid method until you get into some very large cams with very high durations. I've measured many cams using exactly the method you describe and it's always given me "sane" results, so I trust it as generally reliable

 

that will give you a ball park figure

 

You could place the cam up on a couple of v-blocks (with a little lube). Set up the dial indicator/deflection gauge and spin the cam for accurate results.