I'm looking for a solid roller cam for my 1985 corvette. The other mods I'm gonna put on are; vortex intake system, 52mm throttle body, mini ram intake manifold and fuel rail, polished engine pulleys, new ecu, long tube headers to a 3" y pipe. Any info would help. What would be the best?

 

Unless you are spinning it to the moon or have crazy ramp rates, stick to hydraulic roller.

It doesn't sound like you are doing anything to internals so I'm going to assume high rpms are not going to happen.

 

Add a 195 comp port afr head 11:1 compression and something in the 236/242 duration at .050 it will rip. Love solid rollers.

If you arent going to turn it over 6200 a HR may be your best bet. They are both good

 

Is there a down side to solids if you don't need them? Are they noisy and require periodic adjustment?

 

Just as you said, noisy, adjustments and tougher or valvetrain parts because of the constant pounding. Things don't last as long.

 

If a hyd roller will do the job use it, it will last a lot longer. Mech rollers dont offer nearly as many street / strip grinds. They typically use very agressive lobe profiles and are intended for highly stressed engines.

 

Long tube headers aren't intended for high RPM engines.

 

I disagree, long tube headers are the way to go for any performance engine. They will out perform any shorty or exhaust manifold. The more power you make the more a long tube will help you.

 

I have used several solid flat tappet cams over the years and if you use poly locks on the rocker arms you really do not need to adjust them that much unless you are tuning the engine by changing lash. As long as you do not run too high of spring pressure and not too much lift a solid lifter cam will last a long time. GM's old solid lifter cams used the same springs as grandma's 283 nova. I used the good old Duntov 097 solid cam in my 327 powered 57 Chevy and hardly ever adjusted my valves and it would still run to 6200 with no problems. I think for a mild street engine a flat tappet cam is still fine if you break them in right and do not go too wild on lift, spring pressure, and lobe profiles.

 

Why would you go with a mild flat tappet solid lifter cam? A roller cam will outperform a flat tappet cam because it will open and close the valve quicker. A solid lifter normally is used for high rpm applications revs are important. For a mild street cam, it is totally unnecessary unless you like the sound.

 

deffinitly hydro roller, even a used take out of a zz4 crate motor would be good. thats what i use in my street stock and its got awsome power with a 500 cfm 2 bbl and ported manifolds, would be even better with headers. plus its cheap, i got the entire valvetrain off ebay for 200.