Buddy of mine wants to build a slightly warmed 318. He already has a nice, low-mile '86 roller block, J heads that are already built and shaved .030(?), kb167's, and....a brand new comp 262h hydraulic flat cam.

He asked me about putting that cam in the roller block, and I thought...ummm....uhh...dunno why not? The thought never really crossed my mind. Any reason it won't work?

it will work without any problems. for a while the factory used hyd. non roller cams in their truck motors and used roller blocks. i have one that came out of an 84 van.

If you use the non roller hydraulic pushrods along with the flat tappet cam and lifters you are good to roll, I have a 340 cam in my 87 318 doing this.

Thanks guys.

I'm curious as I've never looked at how the pre-magnum blocks hold the roller lifters in place. I know the magnum blocks have tall lifter bores and they interfere with the pushrods if you use a flat tappet lifter.

No issues in any way....540 lift solid lifter comp in a magnum block

Only pushrod issue may be a slight rub on the head if you dont make a lil extra room, some dont need that.

yep my 85 truck 318 had a roller block and flat cam,i swaped in a lunati roller cam with comp 901-16 springs

used all stock roller gear,roller lifters,short hollow push rods.stock retainers/seals and rockers.

it oils thru the PR and roller lifters and also up thru the head to the shaft mount rockers.

all the tbi engines from 88 up that I have had, have oiled both ways to the rockers with roller cams.

sets it right up for a magnum head swap next

FYI,I thought at first oiling both ways would be to much oil up top,but the factory has done them this way and I have seen no problems with mine.

I'm going to beat Patrick with this one:

Have your friend send his cam to Bullet Cams wwwbulletcams.com and have them regrind the stock roller with their 259 316 lobe. It'll cost $150 or less. Then he can use his stock roller lifters, not worry about breaking in a cam, and have a much better running engine. The 901s will work on this too because with a 1.5 rocker the lift is 0.474. Keep the the LSA the same.

R.

yup, you beat me...I don't know if I'd ever go back to flat tappet after running that lobe with some magnum heads....

and if he already has the stock parts, it's a wash price wise, vs. buying a flat tappet cam/lifter combo and pushrods.

Just losing the flat tappet break-in problem is good enough reason to stay roller!
R.

I measured the retainer to guide clearance on the 302s and came up with something like 0.6" but that was without the valve stem seals. Spring Installed height was somewhere between 1.585 and 1.610, meaning I have to calculate maximum lift again.