I am open for suggestions as I mentioned before. I would consider this Solid Roller Cam set up. I do not know anything about it. But as 63Mako mentioned, if they have a better design in valve/lash adjustment, I would like to get more educated on this.
Do you have any part #'s/names/manufacturer??

I have only heard the negative comments about valve/lash adjustment from solid lifter cam set ups. Heck, I do not even know how to do this. I think the tool to do it with, is in the back of garage somewhere. Is this difficult, how long does it take?
I have heard you have to run the engine to operating temp, pull the valve covers off with engine running, and then be prepared to be showered with oil and that it creates a freaking mess. Not sure how accurate that is.
So, not that often for a solid roller cam, Define that? every 500 miles, 1000 miles, 5000 miles? Can you take it on a 500 mile round trip weekend?
I am not a rookie with all this. I have pulled engines, trans, rearends. So I can turn a wrench or two. When it comes to the details of cam specs/heads/fuel and spark. I need a some hand holding.

I would like to maintain 450-500 hp range. If I can get more than that, so be it.
The rect port heads do have me a little concerned, I think the word overkill was used previously.

71HO, I mentioned in my first post that I have had a rebuilt trans and rear-end completed for me. The trans ( I was told ) should hold up to 500 HP. But, if it breaks, then oh well, I will have it repaired. I would expect these problems at the strip with slicks.

Thanks again,

 

I missed the part about your transmission and rearend already being done.. (Can't blame me, I was drooling all over your engine pics)

500 mile round trip? Go with the hydraulic roller.. It's that simple...

As far as adjusting the valves, if you drive the car all around town, 3-4 days a week, down to the store, over the bank, out to the movies, etc. etc. etc. you're looking at every other weekend. Adjusting the valves is not quite the mess you mentioned above, but it is a tedious process that must be done with care and accuracy.. No exceptions..

I have the hydraulic roller in my HO454 (.510 intake / .540 exhaust)
and I'd drive that car across the Country without hesitation. I love it!!! With my L88 hood and cold air box I'm sure it's putting out close to 450hp. Just put the key in the ignition and go...

I had a feeling you wanted a strong "street" motor and when you said "drivable street car" you meant, "drivable street car"

So what if your heads are a little overkill, what did that ever hurt? It's better than underkill.. You get a good dualplane intake, a 780cfm Holley w/vacuum secondaries and you'll barely notice. I'm always open to new ideas and if Mako says 10:1 can be done with todays 93 octane, I'd tend to believe him. I've seen what detonation can do to a piston, and it's not pretty... I've always tried to avoid it like the plague...

Take it slow, do more research (Look at the cam profiles that GM is stuffing in their crate motors and go from there) Have a blast with it....

 

With solids you set lash hot with the engine not running. Once it is set you can let it cool, check lash and you now have the number to set lash cold. Should check lash after a couple heat cool cycles and again after 1000 miles. Every 2 or 3 thousand miles is ok for adjustments. Some go 5000 without changing. This is a good cam kit for a 10 to 1 setup. 3.73 gears recommended. A high performance build will always recommend low rear gears. http://www.compcams.com/Cam_Specs/Ca...?csid=499&sb=2

 

Trying to set the valves running with that cam and spring setup will cut divits out of your feeler gauge (experience speaking here!). warm it up, shut it off, pull one cover, adjust that side, cover back on, warm it back up, and do the other side. It's really not a big deal to do.

FWIW: I'm running an XCH code BB too. I just added the GM Aluminum heads. Same cam, rectangle ports and still at the original 12.25 compression.

 

What rear gears? What octane? The OEM cams had slower ramps with way more overlap. The seat to seat durations were huge compared to the modern grinds. Blead off more and allowed more compression. Sounds like a pro stock.

 

4.11 rear and VP 110 fuel. That stuff ain't cheap== $7.50/gallon and it sucks it down like iced tea on a hot day.

And I agree with your description of the idle. I shot this video right after I got the car- some kind of funky mufflers in the sidepipes, needed a good tuneup real bad.


I thought I had a pic of the stamp pad with me- it's on the computer at home. Here's a shot of the right bank:

 

That is quite a cam Mako... Huge amount of lift, not sure if that will even idle.
Solid Lift cam vs Solid roller cam, seems to have its advantages based on what I read thus far about valve/lash adjustment. If I only had to adjust every 2000-3000 miles, then I would seriously consider it. I have probably put less than 1500 miles in the last year on my car. But I do plan to drive it much more once I am done with her transformation.

I tried to call CompCams today but got nothing but busy signals. 4 different times. What gives?
I do not want to sound foolish, but I really lust after a fat rough lopey idle. Who does'nt right... Haa, its funny, they have descriptions on the Compcam website. Some say lopey , rough, choppy... Haa I thought those were all the same....

But, I do want quality, that is most important. I want the cam to be happy and perform well in the engine, just cruising around, and then of course went I put my foot into it , I want women and children to be frightened.


Tim, sounds good, I bet with that octane she smells nice...
I guess till I talk to my macheinst/builder or compcams, I will not know what power loss I will suffer by going to a maintenance free hydraulic cam/lifter set up.

454HO-
The pic of the intake is a TMR2, I think that's it. It's designed for rect port heads. Its old school from what I read. Its a single plane.
The carb is a Holley 750 vac secondary. This is what was on it before. I was told it ran well. I guess detonation/low octane gas probably caused that piston to go south.
Thanks for all the info...

 

PM 427hotrod, He is near you and has always been helpful. Yes, the cam I linked to has a lot of lift. That is the big advantage of a roller cam, you can lift the valve faster and higher than flat tappet. Duration and LSA will affect idle quality a lot more than lift. The cam has reasonable duration and LSA. I am better with small blocks but do have quite a bit of big block experiemce. Jim Moore is the big block guru on here but be careful. After talking to him your LS7 might end up turning into a 540.

 

OK. I will look him up.
Mako, I read your Elle88 Thread. That was impressive. How in the heck do all these nice C3 'send up over in Europe.....
Anyway, I read all 13 pages of it, well I scanned over them, a lot of it was over my head.
End result was 503 hp from an 11:1 set up with Aluminum heads. I think from what I read you installed the compcam ZL1 nostalgia design- which was a SOLID lifter cam set up.

You mentioned earlier in this thread, that you thought I could get north of 500 hp on 10:1 CR, but you mentioned a Solid ROLLER Cam set up. Is this the reason?
Would Elle88 engine gone easily surpassed 500 hp if we would of put a roller cam/lifter set up? I know based on the specs he wanted it as close to the original set up of an L88.

Just trying to understand your thought on this.
Thanks,

 

A properly sized roller cam will get you more power even with the lower compression. Elle88 picked the cam and had the heads. We designed the rest of the build around them and the pistons that were available for a .070 overbore 427. His engine is 440 CI. Yours will be 460 with a .030 overbore. The ZL1 cam is really to much duration and has too high of operating range for what I would have designed. You have to buy pistons and a cam anyway so you can design for more power in a more useable (streetable) RPM range. I bet we could have easily gotten 550 HP out of Elle88 with a solid roller. I tried to talk him into a roller real hard but he wanted nostalgia. We came out almost exactly the peak power numbers of a real ZL1 but a wider powerband. His engine is a beast.

 

looks good,


didnt they put ls7's in to chevelles

 

NOPE...
They put the LS6 in it in 1970. If they would of put a LS7, then the LS6 SS Chevelle probably would not be valued as much as it is today.
Chevy did not offer the LS7 in any production car. Only over the counter off road/racing purchase.

 

Nope, but with the right bolt on`s its a 600+ hp engine {intake,carb,headers}..only sold over the counter as a off road engine requiring 100+ octane...Basically a cast iron L88 and was to replace the 88`s. But was canceled...nice engine but production was stopped in the 80`s

 

Hi Rob...got your message.....

First thing is you have a sweet engine there. We used to buy those things from GM and beat the devil out of them. They are tough! Parts aren't mega fancy or trick..but just good and solid and you don't have to worry about them.

500 HP is chump change for these things. Think of it this way...a 454making 500 HP is 1.1 HP per cube. That's the same as a 350 making 385HP. How hard is that to do?

Need to dig up the piston dome specs....but true honest compression on them usually comes in at a little less than 12.0 for sure. If the pistons/bores are good you can mill the current domes at least 10cc to knock it down a little. I've done this quite a few times.

Compression ratio depends on cam, and tuning ability along with gears/trans etc. My old 427 was using 11.2 compression with iron oval ports and a 244* street roller. Ran killer on 93 octane with no issues...but was on the edge. Just had to keep things right. I did long highway cruises on 87 octane as long as I kept my foot out of it.

You can safely do 10.0 compression...and 10.5 is also easy if you tune well. Compression is something you don't want to go too low on. Everything gets better with it. It might only pick up 10-15 HP on the dyno...but vacuum will be better, throttle response will increase and the way it accelerates is greatly increased.

Your heads are really optimum for 6000 rpm plus. They will come alive at around 5000-5500 on a 454. If you run a hyd cam the cam will be signing off just about the time the heads start working. Bad combo that won't do anything well. It won't have the low end or the top end that it could have.

If you're wanting to have some real fun with it I'd put in at least a solid flat tappet and have a good time with some 6500-7000+ rpm shift points. You won't hurt it at all. A Hyd roller *might* have more low end power...but won't have that insane pull once you pass 5000 rpm.

A solid roller does everything better than the other two. It will idle cleaner, rev higher, drive better, make more power etc etc.

Valve adjustment issues are a non-issue. If you're having to set valves a lot you have something wrong. I drove my 540 from Houston to Bowling Green KY with a .731 lift solid roller and when I got there the valves were still perfect (I did check). That's 1000 miles with springs stout enough to hold a house up. Now seriously...a cam like that isn't really great for long distance cruising, but the point is lash adjustments are no biggee. You can easily learn it and it's actually sorta fun if you like playing with mechanical stuff.

If you use one of the *circle track* flat tappets you could cruise all summer easily and never touch it. I ran a .620" lift marine lobe flat tappet in my 540 one year and literally it never moved lash.

If you have to buy pistons look at a full floating version with smaller domes and check balance on the whole thing.

One of the factory dual plane intakes would work fine...or an old C-427 or C-454 Dominator style would help low end. The newer Air Gaps would do great too if you aren't going to nostalgic. The one you have will work fine too....but the others would do a little better.

Again, I'd build it to allow the heads to really work and not castrate it with a wussy hyd cam. It'll be a blast!!


JIM

 

http://www.compcams.com/Cam_Specs/Ca...?csid=499&sb=2 is real close to the 244 street roller Jim mentioned and will be milder in a 454 than a 427. Yes, the lift is big but .650 isn't real serious with a big block solid roller, it will really help with power across the entire operating range. Look at that 731 lift Jim is running ion his 540 that is serious! It starts getting hard on parts an requiring more maintainance with that kind of lift and the spring pressures needed to run it at high RPM.
Good design, tune and quench will be needed to go to 10.5 to 1 with the cam I mentioned, I would err on the side of caution. Hated to recommend to big of cam or compression not knowing the rear gearing, trans combo you have and street use. Jim is the guy that builds some bad a$$ big blocks for the street and is a good guy to get some solid advice from. My whole point is you have the base for a serious engine and have to buy pistons and a cam anyway. A big block will have good torque so you can build a more motor and still maintain streetability with a little less gearing. Why turn it into a typical 454 when for the same $ you can have moore? Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

Hey with my 1.8 rockers on the intakes I'm at .774" lift now...and still street drive it anytime I want. I only look at valve settings before I go to the track.

.650 is nothing for a big block. Lift is ALWAYS good. I wouldn't worry about going to the .680-.720 range at all for a street toy.

That 555" we just did has a .720" lift hyd roller!

JIM

 

Hello, I finally have made some progress on this engine build. Just wanted to share some info and new pics with everyone. Been a very hot summer, so that did slow down the process among other obstacles.
I will hopefully fire her up for the first time in the next week or so. Need to finish some wiring on the electric fans, the ignition, finish running the fuel line, attach heater hoses, mount carb, etc, etc....
I dropped the fat girl between the fenders this last Friday. That did not take really very long. Actually fit very easily. I have spent the last 3 days off and on wrestling with modifying the R4 AC bracketry to fit. A few cuts and some welding and cursing finally paid off. I was about to throw in the towel, but remembered how gawd awful hot this summer has been....
This is the original LS7 block, but nothing else is really LS7 about it anymore. I am selling off the original parts little by little.
I have learned a wealth info from this forum. Everybody has been really great at answering questions and helping me with this. Very grateful. So I am almost there...
Wanna thank,
Tracdogg2, 427hotrod, ajrothm, motorhead, damoroso, mnbrent, mn80vette, zwede, I reached out to a lot of these guys for information... constantly, over and over.... many others as well.
Here are a few pics of the engine. Lighting was off in some, more to come.

Thanks....

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Just get the modern day LS7.

 

in its' day, the "1970" 454 LS7 was such a legend in a several ways, legend as being rare, legendary performance as a straight-out-of-the-box race motor, legendary as the best deal available crate motor in those days, about two grand from any GM dealer, probably could be viewed as the grand daddy of all serious performance GM crate motors.

characterized by the block with the XCH code, nitrided crank, 7/16" rods, TRW 12.5:1 pistons, fire-breathing GM factory cam, rect port 2.19/1.88 heads... it was the total package in its' day. it was the certified pedigreed monster.

if I had one today... out of respect for the legend, I'd have to keep it as-is, and maybe run racing fuel, or av-gas just to feed that beast. definitely not pump-gas streetable.

chrissakes, 1970, that was 40 years ago!!! all now eclipsed by routine 540 BBC using Dart, Merlin blocks, GM's own 502's, and the tall-deck GM 572's. and nowadays the new LS-series LS7 surpasses that mark so easily...with fewer cubes, no less.

methinks if you put a milque-toast cam into the 454 LS7, low-compression pistons, you've essentially made a steer out of the bull. but it will be reliable as hell.

please excuse me, I am "waxing rapsodically", the 454 LS7 strikes an unusual note, pardon. reminds me of by-gone days, days of yore...