Check out the “Ask Ray” tech column in the Oct ’11 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines. Ray Bohacz says he would not rebuild an engine, even a restoration, with a flat-tappet cam.

“I would suggest to all readers who are considering an engine rebuild to move up to one of the many new roller hydraulic cams offered for older engines. They make power like a freight train, idle slow and smooth with excellent vacuum, and remove all of the concerns about zinc in the oil… Roller hydraulic is the way to go” for street/strip or just street.

He makes specific suggestions on what performance criteria you need to address when buying a cam, especially for street driving.

Roller hydraulic in an otherwise stock engine using pump gas is a new idea for me. Hey, maybe I can get 340 hp out of my 340 4–barrel restoration with stock intake and exhaust for street? Or more???

Has anyone used a roller hydraulic in a 340 4-speed with factory intake and exhaust? How did you like it? Was the cost worth it? Did you need new rockers? Any lubrication issues with the tappets?

Looks like the cost is around $1,000 for cam, tappets, and springs from Comp Cams. 20% more from Crane. Recommended idle speed is 800 rpm instead of Mopar 700 rpm in shop manual, which sounds tolerable.

Once you've rolled a lobe you'll never go back to a flat tappet. The attached picture is what is left of the intake lifter from cylinder #3 on my old 360. It not only wasted the cam, but took the cam and crank bearings with it. It even scored my crank to the point where I had to get it ground .010" to clean up. A total rebuild on an 11,000 mile motor.

I drove to Maryland to pickup a free (thanks Reggie!) 1991 360 LA block. For three years Mopar made 360 LA blocks with factory roller cams, negating the need to run the retrofit roller lifters that cost a ton of money. Since I already had LA Eddie heads, going Magnum was out of the question. Even after taking what I spent in gas (was only $2.50 that summer) I was still ahead about $300.

The motor isn't in the car yet, so I don't have any street experience with roller cams yet. I'm running with yet another 360 while I gather parts to build that roller block into a 408.

roller cam is the way to go

I swaped my 88 318 to roller cam back in 07 and spent 700$ or so on the swap,used all stock roller gear from used JY engine.

just pulled that roller cam out and stuck it in my 91 318 from the JY last week,just swaped the cam and was done.

if your doing a older LA engine get a long nose cam for the mech fuel pump.

I took Patricks recomendation on the lunati VooDoo roller cam 60710
258/264
207/213
.485/.485

and used the comp 901-16 spring with stock seals/retainers/rockers/PRs

and they are oil thru roller lifters with hollow rods,so a head swap to some mag heads are a simple bolt on upgrade next.

worked great with the 360 headed 318 in my 85 truck and its in a 91 318 with #302 heads now. great to not worry about cam break in,stab it and jab it

by the way Patrick,it works great with the #302 heads,you can hear the cam a little more on the idle,great throttle responce,has more low end but is a little slower to redline compaired to the 360 heads,mpgs are back up to 19-20 mpg

sweet scratchin'....now try some magnum heads with hughes #1110 springs....

One of the biggest reason I did not go with a solid roller was because if you plan to race your car sometimes (street/strip car) you need to run alot of spring pressure to make sure you have no chance of floating the valves as thats one of the worst things for a roller type lifter. You dont want to damage a lifter or have a roller pin break. Once you have a roller lifter come apart you got major eng problems most of the time. As I was told by a very good eng builder if you run a good solid roller cam for racing your car you should check or replace the solid rollers every 3000 miles or about. Now this is mainly for solid rollers that get raced and use alot of spring pressure as they should. You dont want a lifer coming apart and wasting your eng. I knew I dont mind adjusting my valves once a year as thats all they need even when I put over 3000 miles a year on my 63. But I dont want to pull and check my lifters ever 3000 miles or so with my bad back.

Now I know there are some who run rollers and get away with many more miles but this eng builder told me he has seen it to much and if I run the solid rollers he strongly recomends I replace the lifters every 3000 miles because if one breaks a roller pin it will be big trouble and he has seen a good bit of them breaking lifters. He knows I like to drive my car alot and I was planning on using a solid roller until I heard this. And I really like this solid flat tapped he ground for me. It runs strong as it ran 11.0's bucking in the top of each gear running to lean so I know it has easy 10's in it.
Just a little info I though should be passed on. The reason for this is the rollers need alot of spring pressure to be sure the lifters don't float as if they do they can bounce against the lifter and that is bad on the roller pins. So you have to run much more spring pressure with a roller if you plan to race it and run it hard. And if you run the right pressure you need a good valvetrain to hold up. If you dont run the high spring pressure it calls for you run the risk of valve float. Ron

The roller is a more capable design, no question. In a BB engine not designed for it originally there are some sizeable drawbacks though. Cost and maintenance (bronze gear, inspect & rebuild lifters)are the biggies. If you push rate of lift into the race category, add springs to the maintenance requirements.

FT durability is also greatly improved with good understanding of the need for extra zinc in oil, EDM drilled lifters and nitrided cams. Plus there are effective fast rate FT profiles that don't give much performance up to a roller speced for street use.

I've got about 9k miles on a fast solid FT and love it. Its a MM lobe 243@.050" .55 lift grind from Muscle Motors. I would chose a FT again for a "fast street" build.