Budget roller... Thinking outside the box.

[Catfish]

Hey all,
I was looking on fleabay the other day and noticed retro roller lifters that appear to sit no higher than the stock flat lifters.
Captured cross bar, so no spider needed to keep it from rotating.
I called and visited with Crower about grinding a cam, yep a cast cam cut to a roller pattern.
They said sure it could be done, only did it once before for a 392 Hemi, so its not 100% new ground.
How long would it last? He couldn't say, I can't either, but with a very informative thread on here I seen a while back,
Should be okay since the aftermarket cam blanks have a narrower journal than the OEM cam.
I asked about the Baja Beast grind with an increase in lift to .500 (.362 if i remember right) and a faster ramp to get the valve open quicker to take advantage of the roller.
Custom grind would be $200.
So what do you all think?

[gradon]

Sounds cool. I have no idea on cam longevity, but getting it nitrided would help. My brother has a 505 roller cam set-up installed in a block in his shed. Those h-bars look to be an afterthought. . .

[SilverXJ]

There are no retro rollers for our engines. 505's roller cam (on a cast core) might get to 100,000. Not past that. That is per them so it coul dbe a bit high.

[Catfish]

Read again SB Dodge LA block uses same diameter lifters, that they make lifters for...

[SilverXJ]

Good luck getting the V8 link bar to work.

[SIXPAK]

That thread you spoke of I think I had some pics of and old cam I did this to. It lasted about one to two seasons on the drag strip before the ramps started to go bad. It was .640 lift. I cant imagine that a street engine would last long at all with this setup. I was not even running that much spring pressure. Seat was 150lb and 350lb open FYI.

[Catfish]

That thread you spoke of I think I had some pics of and old cam I did this to. It lasted about one to two seasons on the drag strip before the ramps started to go bad. It was .640 lift. I cant imagine that a street engine would last long at all with this setup. I was not even running that much spring pressure. Seat was 150lb and 350lb open FYI.

It had pictures of the cams, and a lobe went flat, remember 30k mileage number.
I can't say this idea will work, or not yet. But its in the plans.
Would not be extreme, just stock LS valve springs, and a mild lift increase but would mean faster ramps to get the valve open faster.
We all know 505 performance makes a roller cam setup, but I've never seen anything good from that bunch. Plus the pricing is way out my budget, I have a family to feed along with my Jeep hobby.
Thanks for the numbers. I assume you running a flat tappet cam that went flat.
Even crower tech could give me answers to all the questions I had.

[SIXPAK]

Catfish, the cam that started to go bad on the ramps was the cast roller. I have never had a solid flat tappet cam go bad. And those flat tappet cams are as aggressive that can be made and are .904 lifter diameter specific.

[Russ Pottenger]

I agree with John,
I have a 505 engine in my shop now that has a steel mechanical roller in it. It's coming out and I'm putting in one of my nitrided solid flat tappet cams.

[gradon]

Any carnage Russ? Thoughts on those hand ground bars?

[Russ Pottenger]

Any carnage Russ? Thoughts on those hand ground bars?

Fortunately he didn't run long enough for it to get to the carnage part. Lol

Unfortunately a 4.0 head isn't engineered for a mechanical roller cam application

[jsawduste]

Unfortunately a 4.0 head isn't engineered for a mechanical roller cam application

All while reading this I am thinking to myself on how you can put lipstick on a pig but its still a pig.

While I am all for exploiting as much "usable" power for our specific application. Adding a roller cam isn't going to help much for 99.9% of us.

If I wanted "that" amount of power a roller/head is capable of making, I`d be looking at a modern day LS. Even with forced induction a pig can only be dressed up so much.

As usual Russ is spot on.