Hydraulic vs. Solid Roller Cam

I have a 470 short block with a set of trick flow 270's that I have to pick a cam for. Flat tappet cams have me scared because of the failure rate. This will be for a mainly street, once in a while strip car. What is a good cam/lifter setup for my application? ( Hydraulic or solid?) I am not afraid of maintenance, but am not sure what would be a decent choice. If you need any more information please just ask. Thanks

I don't have much faith in the current hydraulic roller lifters for BBM, primarily wrt RPM capability. I'd go w/ a solid roller and make sure the lobes are designed for street durability. Those generally don't require as much spring loads as typical race lobes, either.

Thanks for the advice. I have been reading up on hydraulic roller problems too. So, with a solid roller, do you need to keep your idle rpm higher?

I've heard it's a good idea to keep any solid-type cam idling at 1000+ to encourage oil splash at low RPMS. Mine has enough cam that it idles about 1200, so I never gave it much thought.

Saw on engine master where they ran Hyd roller with solid rollers.Seemed to pick up HP and torque.Seems the hyd cam has less steep ramps They did say that Crane lifters were some of the best Also said some cheaper lifters were problems in hyds.

not sure how big of a camshaft you are going to run. I have been putting hydraulic rollers in most of my customers engines, just because of like you flat tappets going flat. I have been using Morel hydraulic lifters for a lot of them, and one of the things is that a lot of newer hydraulic lifters need thinner oil to work properly. The Morel's have an instruction sheet and it says to use oils of a certain centistoke rating, which works out to be 10W30 oil. They adjust better and lube better.

If you go solid, you have to watch lash frequently, loose hammers the needles in the roller.

No, Mopar stock blocks have a lot of clearances (.003+) in the lifter bores to the lifters, way more than they should have
That being said that does allow a lot of oil to drip down onto the cam lobes and around the lifters, even at idle RPM under 1000 RPM
As far as maintenance on the solid roller lifters buy a good set, I like Crowers, and good rocker arm parts and run good clean oil to make the motor live.
My last pump gas fast street car had a Comp Cams custom ground solid roller cam with their lifters and Harland Sharp aluminum roller rocker arm set up with their 1.65 ratio, I would check the lash after break in around once a year after everything was broken in and stop wearing the high points off the new moving parts like the pushrod and roller tips on the rocker arms

Are you asking for specific size/part# combination recommendations, or for general feedback re: hydraulic vs solid?

If specific size, I'd say there is a boat-load of info that needs to be shared before anyone can really comment: intended RPM range, drivetrain combo (if auto, what stall on the converter), what rear-end gearing and what tire size, vehicle weight, intake (single or dual) and exhaust setup (header sizing), engine CR, intended fuel use (you said street, so 87 or are you willing to cough up the cost of "arm&leg" to run premium - 93/94?), etc.

Almost every BB we do now gets lifter bore bushings...idle pressure is 50+lbs. hot, little to no leaks, little to no air in the oil leading to the mains and rods...and much less engine noise.
Bam DLC coated solid roller lifters, and a good smooth lobe with some lift will make great power...you'll need good rockers though...
Brian

hi

i have a hyd roller in my gen 2 hemi and it is NOISY !

loud at cruse speeds

would rather have a flat tappet or solid roller that had close lash setting .

What are some good rockers you recommend?

My original question was for what type, hydraulic or solid.


Does anyone know who makes the Trick Flow hydraulic lifters? I assume they buy them from someone else but not sure. Do they have a good rep?

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...w-hr-lifters-first-test.html#Post3085938

I’ll be using these again.

I prefer solid rollers over everything else. Just my

My thoughts on a solid setup. Lash it a few times early on and get a feel for it. Once its set it really shouldn't move unless there is a problem. You will learn what it sounds like and will know if it needs attention. Know that long highway drives usually add to the noise from the prolonged heat soak that isn't normally present in main street cruisers. Mine usually needs some tiny adjustment to make me feel good, and I mean tiny, tiny enough that it could easily be chalked up to the engine position not being 100% the same as when it was set last time. That is a downside to checking it using the EOIC method and the starter I suppose.

If I drove my solid roller car daily I would probably check it once a month. It takes me 5-10 minutes at most to zip the covers off and run through the valves.



.

Our belvedere has a .55ish hydraulic roller and is flat done at 5500 rpm which doesn't match the 440-1 heads very well. I'm thinking about swapping the lifters to solid and some better valve springs over the winter to get a little more out of her. I'm not sure I want to do a full a cam swap.

Any thoughts on just changing the lifters and springs?

You wouldn’t be the first, or last person to do it.

You can plan on needing different length pushrods as well.

Noisy hydraulic tappets: something is wrong. Too much lifter body to bore clearance, misalignment of oil feed holes to the tappet, or not enough oil pressure.
Other cause: are you sure your rockers are doing the right thing?

A solid roller tappet is struck violently by the cam lobe's opening ramp during the lash take-up, large tappet clearance amplifies this, and the entire shock load is taken by a small number of needles (not even half) in the roller assembly. Not real numbers, but if the roller OD is .750", the roller ID has to be at least .375" (roller is 3/16" wall). Allowing for 1/16" needles, there are only about 16 to 20 needles , and only those at 6:00 position (5-6?) are loaded.They don't like it.

For street use, if you go with a solid roller, it is important to go with a lifter that has pressure oiling to the roller axle. Do not us a splash lube roller lifter, it is very likely that you will have problems if you do.
Also, the bushed lifters are pretty tuff, and there are no needles to fail.

That makes sense, thanks. What do most of the drag week guys use for their builds? Bushed solid roller lifters? Clark, are you running bushed or needle bearing lifters in yours?