Roller cam suggestions

[jwoodard]

Looking for suggestions on what hydraulic roller cam anyone is running in their FE. Make, specs., etc.

Jim

[RobMcQuarie]

Jim,
We've run a few custom grind Hyd rollers in some customer FE's we've built. They do make good power, but they cannot rpm very high without extensive changes to the engine set-up. So far we have used the H-Rollers in both stock iron head and alum Edelbrock headed motors, but with standard 3/8" valves. With the heavy weight of the lifters, and the heavy 3/8's valves on the other end, we are seeing valve float starting in by about 5800-6000 on the dyno-though you would not be able to distinguish it in a car. (Early tests had float in by 5200rpm, before we started making changes to the "recommended" set-up). We have run about the maximum spring pressure a hyd lifter will take, and also moved to Titanium retainers to lighten the valve side. We did learn that it takes a larger diameter (at the same rate) spring to properly try and control the valves. So take this into consideration when deciding what you are trying to build. If you want to rev it higher, a mechanical flat tappet would be a better choice.

As for cam profile, there are too many variables to be able to say that what worked in one engine would be appropriate for yours. For example, two of the profiles we have tried are as follows:
236/242 310/308 .563/.598 108
246/258 308/320 .655/.655 112
Quite different from each other, but for quite different engine set-ups.
Rob