Don’t be dissuaded by the one-hour length of this video with Billy Godbold, COMP Cams [1]‘ Valvetrain Engineering Group Manager, because it’s well worth the watch. Godbold, who is an actual nuclear physicist–a rocket scientist, for lack of a better term–has instead chosen to apply his talents and scientific knowledge to the development of camshafts and camshaft technology. So when the COMP Cams team managed to drag him out of his cocoon and put him on camera to answer a number of questions on a Facebook Live broadcast, and then recorded the session for posterity, we took notice. They even enlisted COMP’s main man, Scooter Brothers, to devote some of his time to the broadcast.
One item in particular that they spoke about regards treating the entire valvetrain as a system, rather than picking parts from one company’s catalog and more parts from another catalog, then expecting them to all work together harmoniously and without failure. We found that particularly important, since valvetrain failures abound–especially once a racer gets to a level where the engine’s internal components are stressed to the max–and using components which have all been designed to work together undoubtedly raises the performance of the system as a whole.
[2]The discussion, moderated by COMP’s Kirstin Stone, covers a wide range of topics.
There is a discussion about the SpinTron and how COMP Cams uses the information discovered through their testing to assist in the development of new valvetrain products; EngineLabs has an article planned on SpinTron usage and how it affects camshaft and valvetrain development, so keep your eyes peeled for that coming up soon.
The discussion ranges far and wide; from the initial question regarding the use of a needle bearing versus a bushing lifter for use with a solid roller camshaft to the last question where Godbold speaks with Scooter regarding volumetric efficiency and hamburgers, it’s truly Must-See TV.