I ordered my canfield 220 heads for my firebirds new motor, and the guy asked if I wanted roller or hydr/solid springs. So I say.........."don't you mean roller, hydr, AND solid???" and he said they only sell the heads set up for one or the other. So that means that hydrualic cams use the same springs as solid cams?!?!? I thought they didn't. Anyways, I kinda changed my mind on the cam selection and want to go with the Comp XR 282 roller cam. Will i be needing new springs now?? FWUCK! Why are they different? The lbs specs seem almost teh same.
Chris

 

The springs for solid rollers are far stronger than the ones you use for any other type of cam. So there's 2 types of springs for most people: the ones for flat solid, flat hydr, and roller hydr; or the ones for solid roller.

For the XR282 you need about 130 lbs on the seat, and about 350-375 lbs at full lift. you should use springs that are good to at least .550". They're in the same range as the ones you would use with a big flat-tappet solid (other than a NASCAR one).

 

355,

Roller lifters allow the use of higher pressure springs without accelerating the cam lobe wear. The higher spring pressure and rate can be desirable with the higher valve actuation rates associated with many roller profiles.

 

most out of the book solids (non-race) are in the .55 lift range and tend to have seat spring pressures in the sub 150lb. Springs for those cams are frequently used interchangably with a stout hyd-roller/flat tappet.