thinking about saving for a roller cam...comp cam doesn't have a dual energy grind so I would have to special order and this is big $$$. plus the roller lifters................$$$$

Does anyone know of any reason other than cost not to go with a roller??

 

Last time I checked a custom cam did not cost more than a regular cam if you did not want a rush job.

 

personally I like roller cams but other than price probably the only other draw back is if you go with solid you have to adjust them occasionally but they will make some serious HP.
BTW it's an extra $100 from comp for a custom grind over a shelf grind cam. Also you might look at reed cams I ran one in my 351c race engine and all of thier roller cams are custom ground so no difference in price.

 

I'd probably go hydrolic roller...100 isn't bad for a grind I guess...the other parts kill too.

How about long term durability as a comparison?

 

Special grind or a shelf part number are the same price for the Hyd. Roller.

 

Part of the cost of a Hydraulic Roller is the roller lifters, the hardened pushrods, guideplates, and stud mounted rockers. The rocker pedastals have to be milled for the roller rockers, unless you are going with an aftermarket head setup for stud mounted rockers. You will also need a roller cam conversion kit unless you buy the more expensive lifters.

 

Depending on the grind of the cam you use the spring pressure will be much higher for a roller cam set up. The more radical the grind the higher spring pressure required. The reason you can get so much more power from a roller cam is the ability to grind the cam with much steeper ramps which allows to valves to open faster, stay open longer and close faster. In order to do that the spring pressures have to be very high. The entire valve train has to be built with this in mind and you can probably count on less reliability/longevity.

FoMoCo did build a factory roller version of the 5.0L H.O. back in the 80s but the cam obviously wasn't very radical so reliability never became an issue.

 

I am not planning on a real radical grind for my roller cam (260/268 adv dur). I am using plain old 5.0L OEM roller lifters. While at the FTE rally Tim Meyer (TMI) and I discovered that a standard base circle roller cam can be used with the OEM lifters. The reduced base circle cams will not work with the OEM roller lifters in a 400 block unless you flip the dog bones. We did not check the oil gallery alignment tho. Tim probably has by now tho. If you use the Scorpion pedestal mount roller rockers you will not need hard push rods or guide plates. The Scorpion rockers are good for 800# spring pressure so that should be good for a roller cam. You can buy used OEM roller lifters on eBay or new thru the parts store for a lot cheaper than aftermarket types. This makes your total cost just slightly more than for a regular hydraulic setup.

I also noticed the #1 main had a HUGE oil passage feeding the bearing as well as a smaller oil passage feeding it. I will be plugging the large passage in my engine. I will feed the #1 main from the small hole that on the rest of the bearings feeds the cam bearings. It should be MORE than adequate to feed the bearing and will reduce the loss of oil volume thru that #1 bearing.

 

I use a double spring with 145# closed pressure. I am also using 5.0 OEM rollers with the Comp Cams conversion kit. I didn't do anything about the oil passages. I guess that is why the oil pressure drops so low at idle. It was like that with hydraulic lifters as well.
I have some miles on this now, with no ill effects. While it is not a daily driver, I have taken some trips of several hours duration. Much of it cruising at 3000 RPM on the interstate.

 

Feeding the #1 main thru two holes does not make sense. In all of the rest of the bearings oil is fed thru the larger hole but part of the oil flow is siphoned off to feed the cam bearings. So feeding the #1 thru the smaller hole that comes right off the main oil passageway will be more than adequate.

 

also the small hole is the same size as the ones that feed the other 4 main bearings. I don't know if you are wanting to restrict the oil to the cam bearings or not, but most people claim you can't on the number 1 cam bearing but you can by turning the cam bearing and drilling a .080 hole in the bearing itself to feed it through.

 

The small hole feeds the cam bearing. The large hole feeds the main bearing in all of the other bearings except #1.

You can't restrict the oil flow to the #1 cam bearing because it is fed right from the main oil passage off the filter. You could possibly tap out the passage and thread a restrictor WAY up in the passage.

BOTH the small hole and the large hole feed the #1 bearing right off the main oil passage.

 

Amen, preach it Eric,

Originally the Comp person was used to 351W with hyd. rollers, so he assumed a small base circle. Which is probably right for them, but not the 400.

Also as Eric and I found out at the FTE ralley, the 351W and 400 engines camshafts are identical except the #1 journal is about .040" smller on a 351W.

I have turned the front cam bearing to help restrict it a little.

As I have told my customers " an oiling system is a system of leaks, controlling the big leaks help supply helps the entire system"

We restrict the #1 main on every engine we build. The main oiling hole to the mains on 2-5 are .312", oil feed line to the cam shaft on 1-5 are .250", oil feed line to the #1 main is 1/2"

 

Eric I think you are mistaking what I said, but Tim has it you can restrict the #1 cam bearing you have to turn the bearing in the bore so that the hole in the bearing does NOT line up with the feed hole from the filter then drill a .080" hole in the bearing that will line up with it.

 

Actually we do drill a hole in the cam bearing the size we want for #2-5. #1 we just turn, no drilling. There are 2 holes in #1 to deal with. I have not taken the time to drill 2 holes and rotate yet.