Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 242
Likes: 0
From: Tulsa OK
Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam
I am going to have my 406 rebuilt shortly and was wondering if I should go back with a roller cam or switch to a Hydraulic.
The guy that is going to work on the motor expressed some reliability concerns regarding roller cams.
It is going to be just a cruiser with no high performance driving other than the occassional showing off.
Any thoughts?
The guy that is going to work on the motor expressed some reliability concerns regarding roller cams.
It is going to be just a cruiser with no high performance driving other than the occassional showing off.
Any thoughts?
Safety Car
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 3,892
Likes: 13
From: Pettis Performance 565 with two stages of Nitrous Supply nitrous 1.082, 4.61 at 155, 7.17 at 192
Re: Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam (toy350)
Hydraulic rollers are generally very reliable, solid rollers are generally not. All the new hi performance motors LS-1 etc are all hydraulic rollers. There is no reason a relitively mild hydraulic roller would not last 100,000 miles.
Safety Car
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 3,892
Likes: 13
From: Pettis Performance 565 with two stages of Nitrous Supply nitrous 1.082, 4.61 at 155, 7.17 at 192
Re: Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam (tpi 421 vette)
I do not know if a mild solid roller would last 50,000 or not. I have never had, nor see the reason to run a mild solid roller. Solid rollers are for one purpose, to squeeze every bit of HP out of an engine as possible, at the cost of valve trane life. They allow for much steeper lobe angles and higher rpms. If you want a mild roller go with a hydraulic.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 242
Likes: 0
From: Tulsa OK
Re: Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam (toy350)
Is it as simple as dropping in a hydraulic cam instead of a roller? Have the heads been milled or anything to the block to use a roller cam vs. hydraulic flat tappet cam?
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,108
Likes: 126
From: S.L.C. UT
Re: Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam (toy350)
A hydraulic roller would probably work best for you.You need a hyd roller cam, retrofit lifters,and a cam walk button,if your block is a production block.You will also need shorter pushrods.Check length before ordering pushrods.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,169
Likes: 0
From: Manhattan
Re: Hydraulic vs. Roller Cam (toy350)
there are 2 types of cams, flat tappet and roller. each type comes in solid lifter or hydraulic lifter. for your application, i would stay away from solid lifters.
roller lifters are more expensive than flat, but will give you a better power curve. cam manufacturers can use steeper ramps to open the valves quicker on roller cams.
small blocks that accepted roller cams started appearing in corvettes in the late 80's (i think it was 87). ealier block can be retrofitted for roller cams. again, the cam manufacturers make "retrofit kits" for those applications.
the only reason i can think of as to why the guy working on your engine would express reliability concerns about the roller cam would be because of the retrofit kit. I haven't done any research on the retrofit kits, so i can't help there.
I just saw that you're using a 400 block. i pretty sure none came from the factory with roller cams, so my entire post was just stating what most of the people on this board know :crazy:
oh, well, sorry i can't answer your question. maybe some newbe like me will get somthing out of this :) :cheers:
roller lifters are more expensive than flat, but will give you a better power curve. cam manufacturers can use steeper ramps to open the valves quicker on roller cams.
small blocks that accepted roller cams started appearing in corvettes in the late 80's (i think it was 87). ealier block can be retrofitted for roller cams. again, the cam manufacturers make "retrofit kits" for those applications.
the only reason i can think of as to why the guy working on your engine would express reliability concerns about the roller cam would be because of the retrofit kit. I haven't done any research on the retrofit kits, so i can't help there.
I just saw that you're using a 400 block. i pretty sure none came from the factory with roller cams, so my entire post was just stating what most of the people on this board know :crazy:
oh, well, sorry i can't answer your question. maybe some newbe like me will get somthing out of this :) :cheers:
