hello. i just got a 91 lo3 305 from a caprice for free. needs a rebuild. it has the center bolt heads. i took off the tbi intake and tb. i also took off the heads. now i always thought that after 87 all gm motors had a roller lifters and cam. i pulled out one of the lifters to see and it had a regular lifter. why is that? is it a pre 87 block with newer heads or somethin?

 

Does it have 3 little bungs in the center of the lifter valley? Or does it have two bolt holes on either side of the camshaft? Well I guess you won't know until you pull the timing chain cover along with the cam timing sprocket.

Well, if it has the bungs for the spider in the lifter valley, it's a roller block.

The Caprices were weird. They got so many truck parts it's not even funny. Did you know they had the same bolt pattern as the truck wheels?

Anyway, it could be a swap itself, or a cheap rebuild. I don't think there was a specific year that the Caprice got the roller cam.

AJ

 

Yeah for sure check the lifter valley. All Caprices were supposed to have roller lifters and cams from 87 to 96 (when they killed the Caprice ) Maybe the block suffered a cheap rebuild a few years back where they replaced the cam. I've seen many F-body roller engines rebuilt thinking they were actually truck blocks, so they got a flat tappet cam.