[William Miller]

This may be a basic cam theory question, but:

Can a home mechanic measure the camshaft to determine which cam was in the engine? Chris, you mention higher lift on the 964 cam.
Does that mean the lobe is taller than the standard SC cam? How do the acheive a higher lift by grinding?

I have an engine that has been apart before I bought it. Possibly a few times. While I have it apart I am taking notes to document what exactly is in the engine. One camshaft had writing on one end that said 3.2 911.
I looked this up and they the 3.2 had the same part # as the 3.0 cam.

How can I tell if the camshafts were reground already?
I have the same issue with my pistons and cylinders. How can I find out what the compression ratio is. Before I tore it apart all the cylinders except #4 were at 180-185 psi and holding 97% or better on the leakdown. I have measured and all the clerances are within the wear tollerances. The piston is a KS with a shaped dome top. Looking at Waynes book Page 143 picture 4-8 it looks like it might be the one on the left. The caption states that this is a Montronic piston.
I know my piston has a flat area that faces the intake valve. The #4 piston has a round mark or dent in it where the intake valve was hitting it at this spot.

Is there anyway to cross reference the numbers found on the piston to find out what it is?

The ultimate result was that the top ring on #4 piston broke.
Maybe this was a result of a high lift cam and a weak spring?

Has anyone been here before?
I'm starting to think that I might have a 3.0 block with 3.2 pistons and cylinders, I'm thinking now maybe I have 3.2 heads. The valve guides are shot. Could this combimnation work?