you definitely have more patience than me.

 

I'd add that roller cams require VERY high force valve springs due to their much higher mass if you want to run high rpms. Those stiff springs are tough on the push rods at high speeds and will tend to wear out the cam's roller bearings. My engine builder told me that if I wanted to run my 7000 RPM redline, that I could expect to have to replace the lifter bearings every 30,000 miles. The new Z06 must have some special bearings in the valve train or my guy was just being conservative.

 

You're confusing the billet ground roller vs. street grind....street grind solid rollers don't require the ultra stiff springs...if you use those springs on a street grind, you will snap the cam in half

 

Rollers can't be that much of a PITA...hasn't GM used them in stock small blocks since the late '80s?

 

Hydraulic rollers yes, no adjustments necessary or very little anyway. I would put a solid flat tappet cam in before I put a hydraulic roller in yo would get the same or better performance for 1/4 the price.

 

I'm going to have to side with most Nascar Nextel Cup builders on this debate. The Nextel motors run solid FLAT TAPPET lifters (with a bunch of oil spraying on the cam/lifter interface) because #1 then rules require it and #2 solid rollers won't last in a 500 Mile Race. Don't try to go and educate me on the fact the Craftsman Truck and Busch motors run rollers, these races are always under 350 miles and the lifters are TRASH after one race (Buyer BEWARE! lots of sets on Ebay.) There are some good quality solid flat tappets on the market, you will just have to run a Zinc oil additive to keep them alive with modern motor oils or use Valvoline "Not for Street Use" Racing oil with the high Zinc additive package. The solid lifter is: lighter, can take morre aggressive accelerations (the "Juice Lifter" will collapse on fast ramp cams), and won't "pump up" like a hydraulic lifter will. There are some really lightweight (under 100 gram) solid flat tappets on the market that will perfrom well in a long term motor. I tell my solid street roller guys to check their lifters every 5,000-7,500 miles or they will be sorry one day!

 

Too bad all this good advice will go up in smoke.

 

The big worry with the solid roller is that the rate of lift is so fast that you are slapping the lifter wheel against all those little roller bearings inside. Once any of those little roller bearings flat spot, the pin to the hand grenade has been pulled. Hydraulic roller lifters are always in contact with the cam so there is no slapping effect to flat spot the little rollers within. The Crane pro series solid rollers are only slightly heavier than a standard solid lifter. The higher spring rates are needed because the valve is jumping up so fast relative to a standard flat tappet cam.

Schubeck has a great alternative giving great reliability to the roller cam design. http://www.schubeckracing.com/rollerx.html But it will cost you about $1000. The block needs to be sent to them for modification.

A flat tappet cam is simple and effective, but they do seem to fail pretty quickly if anything is wrong, even if installed correctly. If it survives the break in and a few hundred miles it will probably last as long as the rest of the engine giving very little trouble. I really like the NASCAR internal oil spray idea.

Chuck

 

http://www.compcams.com/Technical/DynoSheets/

here is an interesting page if you dont mind clicking around a bit.

it appears that roller cams of similiar durations make similiar power to hydraulic cams of similiar duration. A bit more torque too. What I find interesting is that the rollers hit their peak about 600-700rpm less than flat tappets.

 

Thought this might be of interest to some of you.

 

This is the reason I like the solid roller in my motor. Nice flat torque curve with only a 40ft/lb change from 2000 to 5000 RPM

 

Reading this argument tells me that the big advantage of solid flat tappet over solid roller is the durability, right?


Well, our cars are not Nascar cars. We don't need the 300 duration @.050 and 650 - 700 lb open load spring pressures that the Craftsman Truck and Busch motors use. We have street cars, mostly driven < 5k miles a year. A solid roller can be run for many miles in the milder "street" version. These milder street roller cams still have a more agressive ramp profile (236 @.050" 159 @ .200") than their solid flat tappet counterparts (236 @.050" 147 @ .200") from the .050" and .200" duration #'s I've gotten off of Comp Cams web site. Add in the fact that they use a roller wheel for contact makes them more effecient.

I'll also state that I do not believe a solid (or hyd) roller conversion is a good bang-for-buck performance increase, but I do not see how an argument (other than $$) can be made that solid flat tappet is better.

I put 30k miles on a Comp Cams solid roller. I destroyed 1 lobe, but all of my rollers were fine. It's really funny as the cam lobe is more "destroyed" than the lifter which only has surface scratches. Also, the 15 other lobes and lifters were good, although 1 other lifter as some (barely) visual wear (not anything that you could catch a fingernail on). I put in another cam and two new lifters and am running with that now.

 

Sorry, I didn't check out the link, but hyd vs solid cams of same duration is a bit misleading since usually the duration is taken at .050" valve lift. Well, a solid cam will have .015" -.025" of lash, so the duration is really at about .030". So, a solid cam will act "smaller" than it's .050" duration numbers will tell you.

 

You guys are way over my head on the topic, but I'm trying to learn. I was told I have solid lifters in my stroker. You folks mention the high maintenance. What should I be looking out for?

 

Dont worry, you were told correctly. All factory high reving HP Vettes were equiped the same way