Small Block 360 LA/roller lifters to Magnum transition

All,
What years did the LA 360 have roller lifters?
Is there any other difference in those years and an early LA 360?
I may have other questions, but thinking of looking for one that came with roller lifters instead of spending big $$ on retro fit roller lifters.

Thanks all!!

Wally.

LA 360 roller blocks are 89 to 91 found in pickup trucks and vans.

I

Is there any other differences in an '88 LA360 to the 89-91?

Not sure but I think the LA roller lifter blocks had some bosses to hold a "spyder" that retained the roller lifters. Could be totally wrong, never had one.

The roller blocks, both LA and Mag, have taller lifter bores and also threaded bosses in the middle of the valley to bolt the lifter retainer spider to. The taller lifter bores have reliefs on the inside of the pairs of lifters that allow the dogbone pieces to hold the lifters.

I would just look for a 5.9Mag block, they are 10 times as plentiful as the 360 roller blocks.

AFAIK all four roller blocks use the same lifters and retainer hardware. Chrysler was not interested in adding expenses when these engines were built.

R.

Magnums seem to be easier to find. If you can find one early enough, pre 95 I think, many of them had the oil passage to feed LA style heads. The passage was eventually eliminated since magnums oil through the pushrods.

If you are going junkyard hopping look for the roller 360 in church vans as most of the pickups I find are stripped bare already. Probably because it's way easier to pull an engine from a pickup than a snubnose van.

So if I find an 89-91 Roller lifter LA engine, what lifter is best to use?
Would OE replacement work ok or do I need a big $$ aftermarket brand?
FYI - it will be for a (hopefully) mid 11 second street/strip all steel A-body w/auto Trans.
Great info here, thanks to all who chimed in!!

Wally.

On a pre mag la block im using nos oem non pushrod oiling roller lifters on a .540 lift reground factory cam.

Its my understanding the early lifters were a bit different then the later mag lifters that I think pushrod oiled, but I could of used the newer oem as well.

Ebay has some decent oem roller lifers in the $130 range give or take.

The early lifters were known to tick a bit on startup because of the oiling hole location which they changed in like 89 and there was also a tsb for it.

But so far ive not had the "tick: issue on startup.

Not sure what timeslips EV2Bird has, but I would suggest if you are shooting for the 11s forget the factory setup and use any block you want with aftermarket link bar rollers. The factory roller lifters are quite heavy peices, and what you save in money you'll probably spend in lightening up the rest of the valvetrain to make up for them, or cost you in gas and frustration trying to find an LA roller block. If you already had a block going ahead and trying it might be a different matter.

FYI the late LA roller lifters were a tad shorter by maybe 30 or
so thousandths, and had the oil holes on the sides. Magnums switched to oil holes in line with the roller and installed hole facing up. The two LA rollers I took apart had both pushrod and rocker shaft oiling.

The 89 to 91 roller blocks are set up for oil pressure to the heads for the rocker shafts. The Mag blocks are only set up for pushrod oiling. The lifters for the 89 to 90 blocks are cinsidered inferior to the later lifters and are not set up to oil through the push rods.

The stock hyd roller lifters work fine.

I've spun them to 6500 rpm with no float.

It's easy to build a 450+ hp deal with stock hyd roller lifters and a decent head.

Some great info, I use a heavy spring but not too heavy, its still speced for a hydro roller.

Ive read about concerns of the roller lifter weight but also consider 6 6200 needing alot less then other builds with solids or s rollers going 7500 plus.

Im using the 4494467 PN tappet package from mopar that had a lifter and pushrod in each package. These were dated 88. Of course I set aside the pushrods because they are thin with the oem spring and crazy approx .450 lift oem roller cam makes me ask why they even did it when other brands hydro lifter motors seemed to pick up alot more the the mopars did.

Its talked about here

http://ramchargercentral.com/vehicle-help/5-2-magnum-high-oil-pressure/

My build seems pretty peppy but I wont know numbers till spring and I wont go out on the roads yet with the mag/salt residue on them.

Im using a 6cc domed piston to offset the 3400 ft elevation im at.

Heres a pic of a LA Roller pushrod oiling lifter for any interested. I can't remember the model year of the van I pulled the 360 from, but it had hollow pushrods, and a non lockup A518 which is sitting in my garage waiting for a rebuild to go in my challenger. Another post I read said the dual oiling (pushrod and shaft) was a mid 90 model year change in preparation for beginning of the production changeover to magnum engines and referenced some technical bulletins.

Glad to hear some people are getting good performance from the stock setup since that is what I plan on using for my build. I think it was actually the MP engine book that said the stock setup wasn't suggeated for racing. Granted, I'm not shooting for the 11s so I thought I would give it a shot.

BTW if you are one of the few fans out there of Rhoads lifters, they make a hyd roller for use with the OEM spider plate setup.

The MP books have some good info and some not so good...

Stock SB blocks only good to 400ish hp, maybe it was 450... That type of stuff.

IMO, they wrote stuff, occassionaly, to sell non stock parts.

Is there a better hyd roller lifter out there that will have better control, possibly. Does the factory stuff work, yep.

A 10:1 360 with a decent head (mildly ported ede or LAX heads) with a low 230's at @.050, 550ish lift cam will make in excess of 450hp. That's plenty of engine to power a 3300 pound car into the 11's with a good chassis.

All great info, a big thanks again to everyone who chimed in.
So while we're talking about mid 11's with a good chassis
Will SS springs and good shocks be an ok choice of a good chassis?

Sure... front end is where a TON of 60' time is hidden!

Awesome, thanks.
When it comes time, I'll start up a new thread for it.