The 1988 Lunati Cams
catalog was racing's introduction to Miller's MID-LIFT thinking at a peer's level,
even if it was only the VALVE side of geometry. It quietly did what
prior tech articles had failed to do: let competing cam and rocker
manufacturers know that MID-LIFT was no longer a secret; just a matter of time.
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In 1987 a dialogue
developed between Joe Lunati and Jim Miller over Lunati's interest in
changing sources of rocker arm manufacturers, following a lot of
problems from their Ohio based supplier. Jim Miller was winding down
engine building from his Illinois based shop, Miller
Race Engineering (MRE). The Lunati inquiry was Jim Miller's first interest in
manufacturing rocker arms for engines other than the BOSS 429, because
he knew it would involve matching cams. After
months of negotiations, Joe Lunati and Jim Miller met at the 1987 NHRA US Nationals, in Indianapolis;
followed by a meeting in Memphis later in the year. By early 1988, a deal was
struck between the two men based on a pretense that people in both
companies were led to believe, which surrounded Jim's taking over
marketing and new product development for Lunati Cams, while designing a
new catalog. But
the real reason for Jim's interest was based on a quiet agreement between the
two men that no one else knew about. To build a new company from a
mutual partnership between Lunati and Miller, for in-house manufacturing
of roller tip rocker arms based on MID-LIFT geometry.
Lunati desperately needed
a new catalog to replace their old "red" catalog which had
been the norm for several years. Jim's years of magazine writing,
photography and desk top
publishing was well respected to qualify for the first job
at hand: to give Lunati a new catalog. But off hours was spent
designing tooling and procedures for volume
rocker arm production. Office hours was full time photography, part number
changes, page design and technical illustrations that took Jim many months
to complete, even with the help of key people in the Lunati organization.
With no current rocker
arm supplier
at that time, Lunati
was losing rocker sales. Miller Race Engineering had been a Crane
customer for many years, and Crane Cams
was aware of Miller's addition to the Lunati organization. As many
companies do, Lunati and Crane routinely traded business on
small parts. What may have started as casual conversation between the
two companies grew into an "idea" that served both Crane and Lunati,
and it would fix the current problem Lunati had for a reliable rocker
arm supplier.
(See: Crane's Coup)
The special machinery needed to make rockers for new production would take at least 6 months to set up.
Jim's interest in Lunati's sales as marketing manager was to increase
sales, so an offer from Crane to supply Lunati with a rocker arm was
viewed by Jim as a temporary fill-in that would buy time for getting the
new company up and going. Jim knew the differences of Crane's "design
geometry," so Joe accepted Jim's idea to include
installation instructions within each set sold that would educate the engine builder
to a new way to install the rockers. This would serve as a technical
bridge to the next generation of rockers Jim intended for Lunati to sell
within the year, as soon as the new machinery was up and going.
This technical
information was 4 pages long. It had been published by Jim before, with
hand drawn illustrations of what to measure from for setting
correct "installed geometry." For the Lunati instructions, Jim used AutoCAD
to illustrate everything to exact and clear proportions. This is the
same illustration used here, in
INSTALLED GEOMETRY,
16 years old, and NOTHING has changed! These instructions were received
so well by customers that Joe insisted on using them in the new
catalog. Crane had to be choking. Their "blue" rocker arms being
enhanced with an inserted instruction of how to do what they never
thought of: set rocker arm geometry from the valve spring
retainer. No one was making ANY statement of how to set rocker arm geometry.
Everyone was simply telling engine builders to keep the roller "in the
middle of the valve." So what? That said nothing. Did nothing. Meant
nothing. Here was finally clear information, using real measurements and
methods form a precise, perpendicular reference plane with the valve
centerline: the VALVE SPRING
RETAINER. People were still in the world of "plastic pushrod checkers."
A joke then, and a joke today. These instructions would mark a precedent
for rocker arm information, at a CAM COMPANY level; peer to peer. Never before
had such information been given out by any cam or rocker arm manufacturer.
For the FIRST TIME a STANDARD was published to the industry
FROM an INDUSTRY CATALOG of what to look for on the ROLLER TIP side
of the rocker for setting geometry. Never had this been explained or
illustrated before, except tech articles which Jim written for a couple
of magazines. Now, a respected, industry accepted company (Lunati Cams)
was presenting this information, and OTHER CAM companies couldn't ignore
it. Neither could Chevrolet, nor Ford, nor Chrysler.
But with all this said and done, Jim never explained the PUSH-ROD side
of rocker geometry. However, anyone with attorneys (like Chevrolet)
could pull up the public domain illustrations contained in the
1982 MID-LIFT
Patent, and "learn." (See:
DESIGN
GEOMETRY)
Three years after the Lunati
Catalog was published, Car Craft Magazine published an article
called "Valve Training" in their October, 1992 issue, of Chevrolet's
"Race Shop" recommendations for correct rocker arm geometry. For
some curious reason (no one can answer), Chevrolet was now
"enlightening" the racing community on THEIR preference of MID-LIFT
geometry - carefully quoted as "half lift." (Amazing.)
The catalog didn't stop
there. It set other precedents for CAM information. As an experienced
engine builder, Jim knew the importance of REAL cam information when
choosing a new profile. He wanted the .050" tappet lift figures in the
catalog, and also the cam event timing from the actual "cam card" which
would tell when both intake and exhaust were opening and closing, so an
exact phasing and lobe separation of the designs could be seen before
buying the cams.
No other cam companies
were doing this. Engine builders were used to being at the mercy of their
representatives at the cam companies. It was novel, and originally
complained about...until engine builders got used to the information. In the months and years to follow the cam catalog
never changed, except to have more products added to it as Lunati
expanded into cranks, rods and pistons. But the format Jim designed and
fought for, as an engine builder and a consultant, remained until the
Lunati company was sold to Holley more than 10 years later. The
technical illustrations on setting rocker arm geometry as well as
numerous other technical articles by Jim remained in the catalog. These served to show
the leading companies that a small but well respected Memphis cam company now
published information for the ENGINE BUILDER that would only lead to a
new and higher level of engine preparation.
