Roller cam benefits and components?

I know a roller cam is superior to the flat tappet design and in this day and age of decreased zinc in the oil its just easier. Looks like a very mild roller (.050 dur) makes the same power as a much more aggressive flat tappet. My question is CAN A MILD ROLLER CAM BE USED WITH GOOD FACTORY STAMPED STEEL ROCKER ARMS? If so I would assume pushrods would need to be made to the correct length? $80-$100? I am doing the math and a roller cam is about $300 and another $300 for lifters. My questions arrive from OEM setups that use roller cams and stamped steel arms. Seems a roller cam with around 220 dur at .050 makes the power of a flat tappet sized at 230 at .050. So for a 350hp level on a 360 LA street engine could stamped steel arms be used?

I guess it depends on how mild you mean. Rule of thumb is that stock rockers are good to around .5" lift depending on springs and RPM. Most aftermaket rollers I know of are well over that and have aggressive ramps and spring rates.

A FT with correct lube should be reliable.

I have a stock 88-4v 360 headed 318 roller block,came with flat tappet

I got a 1990 core pre-mag tbi 318 for the roller lifters and hardware

swaped in a lunati 60710 voodoo roller cam
258/264
207/213
.485/.485

with stock push rods/rockers/roller lifters/spider/retaner

used comp 901-16 springs with stock retainers,locks,valve seals

this was back in 07,still running strong,good daily driver performance gain,picked up mpgs

thats a mild cam

FYI..early stock roller lifter are not oil thru and use a solid PR,later roller lifters are oil thru with hollow rods oiling the rockers along with the old LA style oiling to the rockers thru the block/heads

the 90' core engine oiled both ways,mine oils both ways with no problems

magnum use the same oil thru roller lifters/defferent PR length and rocker

with the pre mag engine you have the long & short nose cams also,short = no mech fuel pump

and magnum cams are not drilled to oil the old LA style to rockers

not sure the push rod oiling to the shaft mount rockers will cut it

well worth the $,effort IMHO

any oil works,no cam break in to worry about,performance gains,less friction for better mpgs



with the spring rates and lifts as mentioned,the lunati SB cams recomend their double with a damper,that needs machine work

comp 901-16 are drop ons within 10# of the spring specs of the lunati springs

I have run 3 of the lunati sb cams with the comp 901s..all were .485 lift,all had stock valve gear and PRs,spun all of them past 6200 and no valve float on the roller cam

ran the bracket master 292/292 .485/.485 slider with all stock valve gear also

had around 250,000 miles on it when I swaped,now has over 300,000 miles on those same USED stock rockers,drivin daily

I say stock works with a mild cam

anything more than that..its whats in your wallet,way more agressive roller cams out there to pick from and need way more than stock hardware

Thanks for the replies. I failed to think about the lift. I do know that about 510 lift is a safe limit to use for stamped rockers. I see the power level numbers put down by mild rollers (by my term mild I mean 218-220ish @ .050) - They are at levels that would take a real agressive rumpity hyd flat tappet. I have nothing against hyd flat components- the brand new cam I have awaiting install is an Engle grind 230 dur .050 and 504 lift.

I have an '86 5th ave that 2 years ago I pulled out the 360 I had in it and built up the original 76k mile roller 318.

a few years prior, I got a 318 magnum for free that had spun some rod bearings. I used the heads off of it after rebuilding them, used the pushrods, rockers, and roller lifters, too.

I had my '86s cam reground by bullet cams. I used their 259/316 lobe, which is [Email]259@.006"[/Email], [Email]208@.050[/Email], [Email]127@.2"[/Email] and .316 lobe lift, .506" net lift with magnum rockers. for comparison, the comp XE262 in my old 360 was [Email]262@.006[/Email], [Email]218@.050[/Email], [Email]130@.2[/Email] and .308" lobe lift. 10k miles on the motor with no problems with the stock (unknown mileage) magnum rockers. for the mag heads, I'm using retainers I got off a pair of 2.2/2.5L chrysler 4 cyls from a junkyard, and hughes #1110 springs.

the 318 makes as much power as the 360 did, and gets 2mpg better economy.

the regrinding of my cam was $150, and the rest of the parts were all stock used.