Quote Originally Posted by Johan78 View Post
Free is always good
Not in the case of a used flat tappet camshaft it isn't. This cam should be used only in the same block it came out of with the same lifters on the same lobe locations. Sometimes you can skate by with a complete set of new lifters on an old cam, but in today's world of motor oils without the extreme pressure lubes in them, it's a gamble.

As you hold the cam out in front of you longways left to right, lay a straightedge on the cam lobes, one at a time. The lobes are cut on a slope longways on the cam blank, so that there is a high and a low side to the lobe as you look at it left to right along its length. This allows the lobe to contact the lifter with the high side of the lobe to spin the lifter in its bore. If the lobes are flat, with no slope to them, in other words with the high side of the lobes worn down, then the cam is junk.

Here's the same cam new, so it ain't like the end of the world. It's only 140 bucks for a new one. That will look reeeeaaaaalllll cheap to you if you run the other cam and it roaches a couple of lifters and you have to tear the whole motor back down to clean out all the shrapnel before buying yet another cam and starting over.