dariopop

I just purchased a brand new 350 / HO crate engine , long block ,it was built by Jon Barratt racing engines. It's the 370 HP cruizer model. This guy purchased it in 2007 and never installed it , it was still in the shipping crate. I't a brand new ( not Mexican )
10243880 block 4 bolt main , accepts a mechanical fuel pump. It has Dart heads billet alum rocker rollers. Now here is my problem, I wanted a roller cam
and this has a brand new flat tappat cam .
It's rated at 370 HP and should really run and sound great but I really wanted the roller.If it were yours would you bother changing the can now while it's out of the car or just run the flat tappet and deal with the oil without zddp issue.
I only paid $2,000 delevered to my garage.
It has a brand new alum manifold and Distributed, the engine is only missing the Carb
Water pump , alt, and power steering pump.

Shark Racer

You know you better than I know you.

If you put this in are you going to constantly wonder "what if I upgraded to the roller cam?"

If so, it's a way better time to do it now. Not to mention, you'll get a chance to inspect what you got.

Mick71

Great buy on that engine. I agree with the poster above, now is the time to change it to a roller cam if that's what you really want.

Flat tappets are a non-issue to me.

harris1507

I had my engine out and thought about changing the cam, But decided not to. Now after a year back in and driving the car around. I wish had done the cam change. so for me if I were to change the cam I would have to loosen up the oil pan bolts and drop the front of the oil pan to get the timing cover off. I hate oil leaks, so there is that chance. So if you are still on the fence, use a 2 piece timing cover that you can take off with out dropping the oil pan. Also if I wanted to do a bigger cam, I would have to change the valve springs. Believe me I have enough power for the street. And I'm not racing it, and I can only go legally 75 mph in FL. If you want to hear my engine go to harris1507 on youtube and listen to the 1969 LeMans Blue big block. I hope this helps and keep us posted.

Jeff_Keryk

If I ever pull the damper off the old L36, I will stab a roller. I say do it.

dariopop

Harris 1507 cool video!
Rights now I'm not sure what I really want to do, if it were a used stock HO it would be a no brainer, but comming from a speed shop and being a brand new block already pushing around 370- 380 HP and around 480 LB Torque and again
On a engine that has never been run and not being a mechanic myself I'm kind of
Leary on fooling with it. I am really trying to look at the pro's and con's at this point.

Condo_454C3

I would leave it and just run an oil that has been independently tested to show it has enough zinc for flat tappet cams. I think there is a sticky on here somewhere that breaks them down for you.

The13Bats

Well, if I found sound great bargain on an engine built by some guru I wouldn't fix things that are not broken, I would admit the builder knows more than I do and just run it as is,
But if you can do the builder one better, for all I know you can as I never heard of the builder then by all means swap in the cam you think it should have while it's out and easy to get at....but I would not spend the $$$ just to go roller in a street engine...if you want a bigger/different cam that might be a selling point...

Shark Racer

In a lot of cases I'd agree, but going flat-tappet instead of roller-tappet sounds like a constraint on the design as opposed to a cornerstone. And if a builder truly swore that flat-tappet was the way to go, aside from cost reasons, I wouldn't trust many decisions that builder made.

The13Bats

Scary that a known name builder would do things to cause people to loose faith in their builds...but that happened a lot in the air cooled vw world.
I would "assume" that in most crate v8 engines and we have so many out there now that any way they can cut $$$ to get the price smaller and compete they will, I was also under the impression that most "performance" type crate engines today have rollers, ( I could be way off ) I fully believe they are nice to have but lots of small blocks making more that 1 hp per cube live long happy lives without them,
I guess it boils down to if a person wantsto spend the $$$ and do the work...

Shark Racer

I agree with all your points.

For me, a roller cam is peace of mind and horsepower without compromise - you can extend the powerband of the camshaft, the life of the cam and lifters, and get it all with a milder cam.

Costs everywhere though. If you have a roller block it's a little cheaper as you can use factory lifters and a cheap-o timing cover. Even then, a roller cam core is about 3x the cost of a flat tappet core, and the lifters are a fair bit more expensive. Going retro-roller adds a bit more. When you can spend $120 for a summit cam and lifter kit and then a retro-fit roller kit is about $600, I can see why it'd be hard to justify in some people's mind. The good news is that the roller lifters could be used with multiple cams, so if you decide to experiment with different valve timing it's only $300+gaskets and time from there on out.

7t9l82

why not call Barrett and ask him his thoughts on going to a hydraulic roller? he built it let him give you his thoughts.

dariopop

From what my understanding of this engine is , it is a brand new GM factory 350 /330 HO that came from the factory with the flat tappet came, it's the 880 Vortex block that is actually a roller came block. Don't really know the whole Jon Barrett thing except that it came from his facility and sold as the 370 HP Cruzer. Not being a mechanic and just about everything I touch turns to s**t ,
I figure I'll just run it as is and maybe in the future throw the Thum per roller came into it at a later date if it s**ts the bed.
Hey $2,000 for a brand new factory fresh roller cam engine was hard to pass up.

dariopop

All in, should dyno around 420 HP /470 low end torque starts at 1100 rpm with new cam. Should be a good stump puller.

DaveL82

I went with an ZZ4 a few years back instead of rebuilding the L82 because of the roller cam.

If it were me and I had a block that is roller capable I'd go roller:
- Great power and drivability (less overlap to make same power as flat tappet)
- I had my doubts but have seen quite a few flat tappet cams go bad in this forum alone. Trouble is when the cam goes you probably have metal in all the bearings so complete tear down
- roller is the latest technology other than overhead cam

KYC4

What did you do with the flat-tappet cam and lifters?

Later,

Lee

dariopop

DAVEL82,
I did end up putting a new roller cam into it.
KYC4
Didn't do anything with the cam. With the new cam I had to replace everything , bigger springs , new timing chain and pushrods.
Old cam is brand new never run. It's an XE 262 H Comp cam

p/n # 12- 238-12 kit.
350 HP @ 5300 410 ftlbs @ 3700

KYC4

PM sent, sir...

cessna150

Hello, I have in my corvette 81 (RESTO ) in Belgium an engine with casting 10243880!: is this the same engine?/regards/Paul

cessna150

Hello, I have in my corvette 81 (RESTO ) in Belgium an engine with casting 10243880!: is this the same engine?/regards/Paul