Has anyone documented the color codes on Purple Shaft cams? The numbers on the shaft never matched the part number. Most Mopar cam numbers start with P4xxxxxx.

This might be better asked in the Race and engine section?

I have never heard of a way to decipher which purple shaft one has other than measuring it in a motor. Please let us know if you find a way of doing so

Yes, it is true, the oldest ones were color coded.
I have some of the old documentation of DC/MP paint dot markings in the files in my basement
from when I worked there '05 to '13. Engineering attempted to document them, but in truth they were often not applied correctly.

I could go on for a long time about the kind of disasters that paint marking system caused, but will save it.

Though they are a fun historic artifact, I would rather never post any of that because I proved the markings were wrong about 100 times during my time there.
Pretty sure the 14th time someone finds the information I posted as being wrong, I will regret it at that point, so I stay away from the topic.

The non-P number stamping is an internal number to camshaft machine co/Michigan.

Whole Engineering staff except one (great) person was let go during BK/08. Around 2010-2012, our one remaining
Engineering authority traded the purple paint + all paint markings for identifiable P numbers which are listed in the I sheets.

We'd also switched to USA/Johnson lifters during (roughly) that same time period.
Not due to any issues with the existing USA/Stanadyne/Engine Power Products
lifters, but more because EPP/Stanadyne completely quit making flat tappets for us, and basically quit.

I see they have changed again recently but am unsure of the specifics. Probably brought back purple paint and raised the price? Don't know.

Always recommend mock it up in a short block and measure + degree wheel to know for sure.
Even then, it may not be a well known marketed item: There are many cams that never made it into the catalog floating around out there.
I had a couple over the years all painted up as purple shafts, but measured like nothing known.

There's more, and I could go on for hours, but will be here all day if I don't watch it.

I was able to id my small block .557 solid from the paint marks many years ago. Found the info on the web of like paint marks and colors, maybe just luck.

Not at all, I will concede that the markings were sometimes right.

But when they were wrong, it was my problem....so naturally those memories are pretty vivid.

The paint markings are not totally useless, but I haven't found them 100% trustworthy either.

Well i learned something new today, thanks Zippy can't say i recall ever seeing anything other than Purple on the cams. but that may make sense as the last one i installed was around 96 or so

So were they mismarked or misground? Just curious...

Wrong part in the package was my problem by default, and I had to work everything out
with the packager and customer + handle all the shipping.

Had a bad rash of mispacks at one point and had to replace a bunch of them.
After the 4th of 5th one, I reported it in a meeting with full documentation and was given
the green light to replace them all.

100% our own fault for not requiring an intelligible marking of some sort,
instead of allowing the paint dots/batch numbers nonsense to continue for decades.

Luckily our one remaining Engineer had the time to make the changes and repair the root cause.

It was one of the more effective post-bankruptcy customer-driven actions of my limited time.

You're welcome. This is going to sound really stupid, but....it's true.....they had paint dot/stripe codes, complete with a decoder sheet.....but....not every cam had a paint dot/stripe color code to match.

Only some of the cams were supposed to have paint codes (and only got the correct markings, sometimes)....and the rest were deliberately blank. Some of the blank ones were accounted for on the decoder sheet as being blank, while others simply didn't exist on the sheet.

I'm serious.

Someone on the outside would think maybe they're trying to be cryptic and sneaky, someone on the inside can easily see it for what it is.

That's why I won't bother posting any decoder stuff in the "paint dot/stripe" wheelhouse ....it was just done very poorly, and very inconsistent...though it is true, some were correct also. It's like a box of chocolates........

Yours were (hopefully) the ones "deliberately left blank", or somebody just forgot to do it.

In hindsight? I'd have to think certain grinds may have been pet projects of someone in the past, someone important enough to ask for a paint markings on only
select pieces. Then they retire or leave the company, 20 years later their decision makes no sense to anybody and serves no purpose....

I had one of the purpleshaft cams for a small block that had "528" stamped on the end of it. I was skeptical, but it was indeed the 528 solid purpleshaft.
None of the other purpleshafts I've had were like that.

When I confirm the lift I stamp it on the cam itself.

Is there a way looking at these cams that you can tell if they are hydraulic or solid lifter cams. Even measuring them some of the grinds are close to each other. I have a few on my shelf I should identify.

Never seen that before.

Not sure of the origin. May have been something done by a retailer as a backup plan for damaged or missing packaging.

I mean.... that is something I would consider doing myself if that happened, anyway.

To the naked eye....none that I know of.

The later (engineering/component number....not kit number) P-number machine engraving took care of that, but only
accounts for the last 10 years or so.

Thank you. Mine are on the very old side. Lol 😂

It makes me want to dig out those old Modified Production DC cams I got from Dave Koffel years ago and look for paint marks. Since those are Crane or Cam Dynamics cams, they may not have any paint codes on them. I got them cheap as cores.

Wow that's a blast from the past
Had a friend running one of their cams in a daily driver 68 GTS 4spd that ran 12.10's at Fremont back in the mid to late 70's. Stock compression .030 over 340. not sure what may have been done to the heads of what gears n the rear but he drove it every day. Oh and it was all motor, no power adders

I got one of those mismarked cams from Bob Mazzolini, it was suppose to be the 590 grind but it checked out to be their .557, when I called the Mopar parts hot line I was told they had changed vendors and they had dyno the new cams like mine and they where fine, he was a Lying Dog Butt eating bad customer service Representative
That was the last Mopar brand cam I bought

Since the MP cams had different lifts from each other, I think measuring the lobe lift and calculating the valve lift would be as reliable of a method to determine which cam it was...... as using the paint dabs.