Is there any difference in cams etc. with a solid vs. hyd? (I do realize I would need to buy a solid lifter cam) I would assume lifts, etc could be faster with solids as you don't have to worry about the hyd lifter not pumping up. I'm seriously thinking about building a solid lifter motor. Periodic lifter adjustments are of no concern. I know that a hyd motor would be be somewhat quiter, noisewise. I'm looking for opinions from those with solid motor or those who used to have solid motors (Jughead, etc.) 383 SBC

 

Dave,
I've run solids in several cars. They help prevent valve float but if you're not buzzing 7000 rpm and higher on a regular basis you won't need them.
Greg

 

If you are talking solid flat vs hyd flat I would go with the soild
if your willing to adjust the valves every five to six thousand
miles. I"m kind of an old fart and had a 69 Z/28 that was bought
new and I put 36000 miles on it before I traded for my first vette.
The 66 I had ran both a small block and 396 they had solid
flat, had a 73 454 that I put in a solid. Bottom line to me theres
no comparing a hyd flat to a solid flat in a high performance car.

 

I have hydraulic rollers, they make power till 6500rpm but I needed to get stiffer springs to do that, to prevent valve float. If adjusting them is no concern, solid roller is the way to go. I would have gone with solids but I drive my Vette almost everyday and spinning an installed engine driving accessories with a wrench is a knuckle tearing PITA.

 

Hi Ratflinger! I sent your Comp Cams Pro Magnum Roller Rockers out Friday. Thanks Kevin I went with hydraulic roller.

 

Go with a hyd. roller if you are willing to part with the money, they
are hard to beat for a street motor.

 

Should have kept all three of those cars as a retirement fund.

 

I would not run a hyd flat tappet in a performance motor. I have run solid flat tappets for years with no problems. You can spin a solid wit ha lot more rpm than a hyd. I take mine to 7000 easily. A solid flat tappet is much less $$$ than a hyd roller but if I was going roller I would go solid roller. The valve adjustment is way over rated. It takes me about 1/2 hour to adjust mine which is about once a year. It usually does not need it I am just checking them.

 

I have a solid flat in my 468....been in bout 2.5 years now. I check the lash once a year and it's always dead on or just a little bit off. If you use the locking rocker nuts properly you should never have them lose adjustment. And they sound soooo much better than a hydraulic-liftered motor. It's music mang!!!

Brett

 

Solid flat tappet cams are trouble free. Roller solid cams are for strictly race cars wher your into the engine all the time. TOO much junk rattling around that requires a lot of maintance and prone to break. On top of that undesirable feature, the benifits derived are not any more noticable in performance. I dont like roller anything in a fast street engine. I prefer to enjoy them, not work on them.

 

Ironcross, I think it is time that you update your knowledge into the 21st century. No offense but your opinion is a bit inaccurate.

 

Ironman is dead on, at least according to people on the corvetteforum running solid rollers. It seems there's a problem with the longevity of the roller trunion and/or the roller bearings. Do a search on it.

Brett

 

I don't know about solid rollers, but I don't think GM would be using hydraulic roller lifters and roller rockers in engines from the late 80s onward if they really had longevity problems...they're not going to want a mountain of warranty work.

 

Solid roller lifters and cams provide a measurable performance gain over flat tappets. There isn't any question of that. If you go with a solid roller make sure it is of a street design with oil grooves in the body of the lifter. Comp Cams makes one.

I find that opinions are all over the place no matter what the issue is. However, not everybody is correct. I bet somewhere, there is some knucklehead who thinks that C3 corvettes handle best with the original red line tires and steel wheels. I can hear it now............"gm wouldn't have put them on if they weren't the best". Technology moves forward and roller cams are much better now than they were some years ago.

 

An added benefit of the solid lifter motor is the ability (necessity actually) of restricting the oil to the lifter valley. This means more oil pumped to your main and cam bearings, and less taking the long journey and flow back from the top end where it's not needed. With locking roller rockers, you won't need to adjust a solid lifter motor more than once a year, and it'll rev like crazy. Roller cams are nice for some durability applications, but the reduced cam and lifter wear is more than offset by the increased spring pressure and the increased valve speed slamming closed with the aggressive ramps required to get a comparable level of performance out of a roller cam. Not to mention 3 times the cost... Just my $000.02 worth.

Jimbo

 

I think you have that backwards. The more aggressive cams (ramps) require higher spring pressures. If you check the cam manufacturers web-site, you will see that at above 235-238 duration @ .050, roller cams take over as the flat tappet duration is too large for the lifter to follow, unless you were to install larger faced lifters. One of the benefits of roller cams is they allow high power along with reasonable idle quality.

 

I am pretty much sold on a solid roller, 12,000 trouble free miles so far. I would not build a motor with anything but a solid roller.

If you don't want to go that route then I would install a solid flat tappet over a hydraulic roller

 

The trouble with solid rollers is low rpm and idle use.....Look at the manufactures recommendation for solid cams....Very little or no idling or low rpm use advised...The same oiling features that makes them great for racing makes them bad for street.

So many flat tappet cams are failing that I would never buy another one.

Hydraulic rollers are the street performance cams of choice. No break in procedure You can even take the lifters out, mix them up and install them with a different roller cam in a different motor.

 

For an accurate indication of whether I know what roller junk can be, is to check my web site at http://nitroalley.net I was given all of the camshafts used in my race cars from several prominate West Coast grinders. In both supercharged nitro and gas engines. All were their special grinds that were really not offered to the general public {both roller and flat tappet}. These engines were constantly 8000 rpms +. I went just as fast with one or the other. The difference was that the roller cam equiped engines were much more prone to have lifter problems. They do come apart. A word on a hydraulic roller engine is that it will never reach extreme rpms and the automotive factories know this. But since we are all probably Vette people just refleck on GM`s high HP engines, ZL1, L88, and the over the counter service package 454 LS7 of which you would have to agree, are at least 550 HP right out of the box. All of them solid lifter engines and no roller camshafts in any of them. A step further in to the Chrysler line, only the A990 426 Race Hemi that most Chrysler people will say actually produced more like 600HP were only solid lifter engines from the factory. All the rest, 426 Street Hemi`s, available first in 1966 were only hydraulic cam engines. However, do as you want. Personally I enjoy my solid lifter street engines and i`m not afraid to drive them anywhere because I know I will always be able to make it home in one piece. And they all idle at 8-850 whether coupled to a 4 speed or a automatic

 

63 Mako I cry big doggie tears every time I see the price of a
66 425hp or the 69 Z/28 the 73 does not hurt much or the 72, 78
L82. I have to go now for a good cry LOL.