I am about to do a head/cam swap on my truck 302. Awhile back I bought a Lunati retro fit lifter set... the link bar type. At the time I did not know that by using those, I could use any roller cam by using them. I also bought my cam at the same time, but purchased a retro-fit Lunati cam, which I think has the smaller lobes for use when you do a retro swap using the spider kit instead of the link bar lifters. I am wondering if I can still use it with the Lunati link-bar lifters that I already have... or do I need a standard sized true roller cam? Just don't want to do the swap and have the cam messed up using the link bar lifters.

Thanks...
Nate

 

You will be fine. The lifter bores in the older blocks aren't as tall as the roller blocks and when you get into high lift cams that can cause issues with the stock style lifters coming too far out of the bore. The retrofit cams are ground on a core with a smaller base circle and the lobes are the same as a regular cam, the big concern with these cams is that they won't handle the load of double/triple springs and high lift and could actually snap in half, but if the grind you have is typical over the counter stuff and you're not using monster valve springs there is no reason to be concerned.

 

The cam with the smaller base circle is intended for use in 5.0 blocks made before 1984 and 5.8 blocks made before 1994. In other words non-roller blocks. If the block has the bosses cast in the lifter valley it will have longer/taller lifter bores. On this type block you don't need the small base circle cam. You can use any roller cam with the stock Ford roller lifters, the dog bones and spider hold down.


I would not mix and match cams & lifters and blocks.
The question is what year if your truck? That will tell you if your block is roller ready or not. You may have to drill and tap the bosses if you have them but that is something that can be done with the engine in the vehicle.

 

Install the cam, then drop in a couple of lifters and cycle the crank and cam and see if the linkbars interfere with the block. If not, then next you'll need to bolt the heads and rockers on and figure out the correct pushrod length for your combo.