Cam question

I never totally understood gind numbers on a cam. I know about degree of seperation nubers but what are grind numbers?..... what do they mean?

Depending on who the cam grinder is, grind numbers indicate which combination of lobes and how they're placed in relation to each other. Each company has their own "lobe library", which they keep the "master" specs for a given lobe on file. When there's a grind ordered, they take out each "master" (a funny looking lobe thingy, one for intake, one for exhaust) and index them in the appropriate position, to get the desired "grind".

Each cam company uses a different numbering "scheme" to identify their own grinds. Therefore, grind numbers mean very little except to identify the cam and it's maker.

Jim

Ok... I phoned a supplier asking for a cam for a specific application... he wanted to know what cam I was looking for but since I'm not to familiar with cam aspects (I do know about lobe seperation) I want to know what do I have to know about a cam to answer all of his questions. (I have a 1974 440 and I want to increase it's overall hp by placing a different cam in it)