rollers on flat cam?

shipy59

Active member
Joined
May 7, 2011
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30
Location
midvale,perth,western australia
Can anyone tell me if you can run rollers on a flat tappet cam? I know lobe profiles are different but can it be done for a bubba cash poor setup? Before you all flame me and say go buy a roller setup, over here roller cams are dam expensive as hell and hard to find secondhand. But roller lifters are around out of v6 holden(chev/buick) or even ls1 etc.
What say ye(flamers will be ignored):idea:
 
No, a flat tappet cam has lobes ground under a slight angle so that the tappet riding offside the cneter rotates and this also keeps the cam in the block. Roller cams are ground flat.
 
I have read about using Solid Roller lifters on a Hydraulic Roller cam.
Supposedly the rampspeed is less on the HR.
Whether it's advisable, I don't know. Not everything on the Internet is true.
If you search EBay you can find/buy a PDF file that shows you how to convert a block to roller lifters using the oem ( cheaper) roller lifters.
Still need the roller cam though.
Try Deltacams.com for a cheaper roller cam
 
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Never to use rollers in a flat cam..... first of all they are tapered..... then they are cast in iron, and the pressure contact of the wheels in the cam will be too high!

Roller cams are allways grind in steel with a much more hard surface than the standard iron flat cams.
 
Thanks for all responces,but i did what i should have done first and just google it. Found a lot of info on the subject with the profile pics answering what i wanted to know about profiles etc,big difference so from what i see it would run but not very well(to docile). So looks like i just run this old cam till it dies or i get ls1 funds in a year or so. thanks guys
 
Are you saying that you read somewhere that it would work, but not well? If that's the case, you need to stay the hell away from that site! It might work, for a few hundred miles until the engine ate itself. It would be an unquestionable disaster.
As for your options, you may consider just replacing the short block. I'm assuming that in Oz you still have access to a fair amount of 90's GM vehicles. Don't know how many 1/2 GM trucks you have in junk yards down there but just about any non-LT engine from the 90's (truck or full size passenger car) should have a factory roller, one piece rear main block that will be a drop in replacement for what you have. Especially with the truck block, I don't think the LS conversion is worth the $$$ if you're planning anything under about 400hp.
 
Never to use rollers in a flat cam..... first of all they are tapered..... then they are cast in iron, and the pressure contact of the wheels in the cam will be too high!

Roller cams are allways grind in steel with a much more hard surface than the standard iron flat cams.

There are a lot of hyd roller cams that are on cast cores you can check with Bullet cams about what I am talking about!
 
I agree with you, but the hardened surface of the lobe (is a matter of metallurgy) must be totally different in order to be able to work with roller or flat tapper lifters.

Furthermore the shape of the lobe must be different..... even if you have the same final duration.

In the Net there is a not small list of complaint regarding cast roller camshafts..... I would prefere allways a billet core!

Just my 2 cents, of course!
 
I agree with you, but the hardened surface of the lobe (is a matter of metallurgy) must be totally different in order to be able to work with roller or flat tapper lifters.

Furthermore the shape of the lobe must be different..... even if you have the same final duration.

In the Net there is a not small list of complaint regarding cast roller camshafts..... I would prefere allways a billet core!

Just my 2 cents, of course!

With those small lobes try to get a billet core!!!
 
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