I am building a 400 sb. and am wondering if a roller cam and lifters would be worth the money they cost (h.p. wise), this is going to be a street motor with maybe a pass or two at the track but not seriously raced. I already plan on putting in roller rockers and a decent cam, I don't mind spending some money on reasonable things but I hate wasting it on things that I don't need. Please give me your advice, its almost time to start buying things.

 

you're the only one that can define "worth it". i have a roller in my new car, my truck and my thirdgen, and a flat cam in my old car the one in the truck and camaro i replace so i could of saved a few dollars and got a flat cam.

 

I have a roller setup in my 400... but then that's just me, I had a flat with similar specs in it before and it ran pretty good.

Just as a pure $$$ / HP it's a tough call. The better your heads are, the more difference you can make with a roller.

 

Forget the solid rollers for the street the spring pressures and replacement of them every year at min. along with parts breakage will drive you BROKE. (no pun intended) Hyd rollers really don't have much advantage over a comparable flat tappet. The best thing about a hyd roller is you don't have to worry about cam break-in. I'll go flat tappet hyd. everytime on a street car and spend the extra money on other bulletproofing expenses like the forged pistons,True roller chains etc.

 

I'd stick a big roller in my race engine if it wasn't for the added expense to convert. Since I want a big cam there's a few things extra I need to change.

Roller cam
Roller lifters
Shorter pushrods
Probably get a rev kit also
Bigger valve springs required for increased lift.
Heads need to be machined for bigger springs, valve guides need to be cut down for increased lift.
Longer valves will be required because of the spring installed height.

Now that's all just for my engine. My current cam is just under .600 lift and the roller cam I want is over .700 lift.

For me to "convert" to a roller cam it's just not worth it but if I was going to build another engine from scratch I would go roller.

Even if I just swapped in a roller cam that was similar to the flat tappet one I currently use it's still not worth it to only get a few more HP. If I want to do a cam swap the HP increase will be dramatic.

 

I USED A HYDRAULIC IN MY 400. ROLLERS WERE A REAL STEP UP WHEN THEY FIRST CAME OUT. BUT THE LAST FEW YEARS, THE HYDRAULIC CAMS HAVE GOTTEN MUCH BETTER PROFILES. GO WITH THE HYDRAULIC AND SPEND THE DIFFERENCE ON BETTER HEADS.