351W camshaft. Hyd roller v hyd flat tappet

[Three Peaks]

I'm running a flat tappet Comp 292 cam in my 393 with Vic Jr. heads and an Air Gap clone manifold. My engine was a budget build and it is built on a 72 block, which isn't set up for roller lifters. Even though I drilled and tapped the valley for the spider to handle the rollers, I came upon a killer deal on the cam and decided to give it a try.
The 292 is plenty of cam in one of these cars, but for a street cruiser I would consider dropping down one cam size. Street manners are fine when I can keep it above 1600 RPM but it really isn't going to respond until you get it up in the 2500 range. A bigger cam is going to be even worse for street cruising as the power range as a rule of thumb will move up the RPM range all other things being equal. Right now I'm running around 515 hp at the crank. Not bad for a $3500 build.

However, when I do get out where I can cruise I get plenty of response with this set up and I'm quite happy with the horsepower and throttle response. The sound of the lumpy idle is incredible also. Many onlookers swear I'm running a big block but I believe that is due partly to my side pipes which have a deep, throaty sound even though I blew out the packing many miles ago.

Just keep in mind to add Zinc additive when you change oil and everything should be okay.