I have a 85 305 (hydraulic, no?)
I have a set of aluminum L98 heads (hydraulic roller, right?)
So, if the L98 heads are hydraulic roller, and the 85 cam is hydraulic....can I just swap the cam with a LT4 hotcam?

i have one bastardized engine....

 

Sorry, but you cannot put a roller cam in a block prior to 87 without a retro fit camshaft and kit. I have a 87 block that has the provisions, but no roller cam, so if I buy the parts that are needed I can use a factory roller cam.

btw
I love seeing a KITT lookalike on here. A board with nothing but third gens should have at least a couple of them. Does anyone have a KARR lookalike (green light instead of red)here?

 

so even if i have roller rockers/lifters, i can't use a roller cam? what all would i need to convert to a roller cam? and if i convert, can i only use retro roller cams?

since the heads are setup for a hydraulic roller cams, will i have to change them over to standard hydraulic?


to my knowledge, i don't know of any KARR's with a green light. Karr had yellow/amber light. I do know of 1 guy that put on a green lense for a st. patricks day parage.

 

Heads are not "hydraulic roller". They have nothing whatsoever to do with that aspect of the cam.

You can only use the sensible roller design in a pre-87 block, nowadays referred to as "retrofit". This has nothing whatsoever to do with the heads.

I don't think you can use a factory roller cam in an older block because when they porked the pooch on their roller desgin, among the mistakes they made was that they changed the timing gear. AFAIK a non-roller timing gear will not fit correctly on a factory roller cam.

There's lots of better cams in the world than the HOT cam. Just get yourself a suitable "retrofit" roller cam, a set of "retrofit" roller lifters, and a cam button, and a set of the right length push rods, and put all that in your block. Leave the heads alone; except that you may need to upgrade the valve springs to be able to adequately control the more aggresive valve action that an aftermarket roller cam will typically provide, compared to stock cams. Same for the rockers; the lifter design does not affect them. Although, I would certainly not use stock rubber rockers with an aggressive cam; that would be kind of stupid, to spend all that money to get lots of valve motion and then waste it all in merely flexing the sheet-metal rockers.

 

woops, forgot the color of KARR

The problem is not the lifters, it is you do not have the bolt boss's in the oil gallery to bolt down the "spider" that holds the roller lifters. You can use non roller heads on a roller motor, the only thing that I know of that would make a difference is the springs, which you would need to change anyways with the hot cam.

I do not know if you can use the hot cam if you get the retro fit roller lifters as I am still new to the roller setups. I am sure you can, but could be wrong. I am actually trying to save up for the swap myself.

I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong (often am)

 

so even if the heads come with roller lifters, and i'm using a 87+ distributor, i can't use a roller cam?

it just doesn't make sense to me. i don't see why i need retrofit roller lifters, if the heads came from a roller block.

just wondering, because i can get the cam dirt cheap.

 

Because you have no way to retain the roller lifters. The 87 up blocks have three bolt holes in the oil gallery to bolt the spider that retains the roller lifters, 86 and older blocks dont. The heads do not retain the lifters.

You are not trying to use flat tapet lifters with the roller cam right? I am trying to explain the best I can without pictures, sorry.

p.s.
I will take the dirt cheap roller if you dont take it, as I like dirt (playing in it,not eating it) and I like cheap

 

man this is confusing...i should have stuck with old vw's.

 

Heads don't come with lifters. Lifters go in the block.

As was said, if you don't have one of the later-model blocks with all of the adaptations to accomodate the factory's summer engineering intern's sophomore project, you can't use factory roller lifters.

The heads have nothing to do with any of this. You can use any heads with any kind of lifters, you can use any kind of rockers with any kind of lifters, there's no restrictions other than just the usual concerns. Put the thing about what heads you have out of your mind.

There's no reason you can't use "retrofit" lifters, of the common-sense design rather than the factory design that is inferior to begin with and requires the special block, on a factory roller cam. Again, the heads have nothing whatsoever to do with anything about using a roller cam.