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Roller Or Not ??

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Blaze74

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Hi there ..

I am planning on overhauling the 350 I have in my '74 K5.

Can I use a Roller cam in that engine ??

If Yes .. should I choose a mild or a wild one??

and What els do I need 2 go along with it ??

Cant wait 2 hear yr suggestion ...

appreciate it /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif
 
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Hi there ..

I am planning on overhauling the 350 I have in my '74 K5.

Can I use a Roller cam in that engine ??

If Yes .. should I choose a mild or a wild one??

and What els do I need 2 go along with it ??

Cant wait 2 hear yr suggestion ...

appreciate it /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

first i think you should know the answer.. if you ask what should you do.... we will tell you something that you will need to re-finance the house with.... refering to the wild cam part... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

but seriously... what are you planning on doing with the truck? towing, pure off road, daily driver?
i dont know if you want a daily driver to take 120 octane every day!!! /forums/images/graemlins/deal.gif

but however i say yes to roller.... roller cam, lifters and roller rockers.....

i picked up a 1991 caprice police motor which is a chevy 350 4 bolt... hydraulic roller cam/lifters, vortec block. Motor is rated at 260+hp.... if i throw on a set of vortec heads, nice carb/intake, headers, roller rockers I will free up so much hp.. i should be at around 350hp when done....... plus i am thinking of 383 stroker baby!!!!!!

roller cam/lifters and even roller rockers.... only allow less friction for a smoother running motor and freed up horsepower....... but it is alot more expensive...so depends on what you want.....

here is a pic of hydraulic roller lifters with their retainers in.....
xheads1.jpg


huge pic here...
http://68.44.94.46/PROJECT_NJLEGAL/Pics/truck/heads1.jpg

pic will be good until june 1st... moving and web server is moving.... /forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif
 
It'll cost you around $800 to convert to a roller lifter setup.

A cam similar to the 262H is about as wild as a cam as I'd go because you get to the longer durations/more overlap and you start losing ponies at idle and vacuum starts to disappear. With that cam you should still have around 13" of vacuum at idle.

How much money do you have? The faster you want your Blazer to move the faster you'll empty your wallet.
 
If you can afford it, it will free up alot of power. I would expect to spend 1,000 on a roller set up. Cam, lifters(hydrolic) distributer gear, and pushrods. You wouldn't need to run roller rockers, but at that point I wouldn't use anything else!! I have a roller in my big block. I can tell you, Their isn't anything like it!
 
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Cam, lifters(hydrolic) distributer gear, and pushrods.

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you say distributer gear... is it any different? we converted my motor from TBI to carb... took my distributor out of my 350 and put it in this one? just curious.... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Depends on what application. Mainly aftermarket needed different cam gears as I understand it, and even anymore, some aftermarket roller cams work fine with the stock dist. gear.
 
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Their isn't anything like it!

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I completely agree! The lift and duration profiles that are only available via roller set ups are sweet! I have one in my truck and the best way to describe it is... violent! **At least with my set up** when it starts making power it will make the motor turn up hard!

The down side that I found is for a solid lift set up the constant valve adjustment is a PITA and it's easy to let the selection get out of hand and lose streetability.
 
While a roller cam will somewhat reduce internal friction, its biggest advantage is in the lobe profiles that are possible only with a roller cam. Flat tappet cam profiles are much more egg shaped, fat at one end and thin at the other. This is due to limitations in how steep the ramp can be on the lobe before it starts to dig in to the edge of the lifter. So the valve opens at a slower rate, taking more degrees of rotation to get the valve to full lift. A roller cam has profiles that are much more oval shaped, with both ends being much closer to the same width. So each valve snaps open much faster, stays open longer, then closes quicker.

So if you compare one cam of each type, with the same amount of lift and duration, the roller cam will have the valves in the full-lift position for a much longer amount of time on each cycle. This allows for better airflow and more power. However, when you get into roller cams, you need a better valve train to deal with the faster acceleration speeds of the valvetrain parts. Converting an engine that didn't come from the factory with a roller cam is a pretty expensive proposition. Prices for just the cam alone will start at $300 and go up from there. /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif Then you have to buy the lifters, correct length pushrods, better valve springs, etc. You'll also take much better advantage of the roller cam profile if you have much better flowing heads (especially as compared to your '74 truck stockers).
 
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You'll also take much better advantage of the roller cam profile if you have much better flowing heads (especially as compared to your '74 truck stockers).

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You'll get more benefit out of replaced heads than you will a roller cam with similar profiles in flat tappet or roller. And with retrofit roller stuff costing so much, better heads will likely be a cheaper option, depending on what you need/want. But if you planned on running a lower lift cam with stock '74 heads, the Vortecs would be a sweet option, and probably less than a roller cam setup.
 
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You'll get more benefit out of replaced heads than you will a roller cam with similar profiles in flat tappet or roller. And with retrofit roller stuff costing so much, better heads will likely be a cheaper option, depending on what you need/want. But if you planned on running a lower lift cam with stock '74 heads, the Vortecs would be a sweet option, and probably less than a roller cam setup.

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I completely agree. For what it's going to cost you to go to roller lifters, roller cam, and new pushrods... and since if you went that far you might as well go with full roller rockers...

you could buy a pair of AFR 195 heads.

You can't beat the price for what you get as-cast. If you want to go a little cheaper you can get World Torquers. For what it costs to convert to Vortec heads with an intake in my opinion you're better off with the Torquers or AFR 195s.
 
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For what it costs to convert to Vortec heads with an intake in my opinion you're better off with the Torquers or AFR 195s

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TBI or TPI I agree on the heads, but I'd imagine, anyone going with AFR's would change the intake anyways, and with the Performer Vortec being around $150, it's not an unnecessary expense I guess.

Not flaming or anything, just one of the things I considered, which was assuming his '74 motor was stock to include intake.
 
The old non-smog GM cast iron intakes are pretty good anyway. However, before Summit started raising their prices a whole bunch of times in the last year you could get a 2101 for under $100. It's getting to the point now where other places out of the magazines are cheaper than Summit 90% of the time.

I'd still go with the heads.
 
damn.. i paid $600 for my 1991 9C1 police caprice hydraulic roller setup... guess it wasnt too expensive.. considering i got a complete motor...!!!!! not the most hp out there... but a efficient motor!!!!
 
If you are starting out empty handed, a factory roller block can NOT be beat. One piece rear main, center bolt valve covers, and hydraulic roller lifters/cam included /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Even if you want to replace the stock roller stuff, its much cheaper to replace the stock lifters than it is to buy the retrofit roller lifters, since the retention method is part of every lifter pairs cost with the retrofit setups, while the stock blocks, you re-use the stock lifter hold down method you see in rootbreaker's previous post. Pretty sure stock lifters are lighter as well.
 
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