Just curious, I am, but my motor isn't exactly stock, who else here does?

 

All my vehicles have solid cams...











Ofcourse you're probably thinking about lifters

 

There's at least one in every crowd.

I have before. They were OK. You gotta have the proper set-ups to "need" a solid cam. You can't just throw them in and expect good results. Your application has to justify using them.

With what companies have done with HYD cams lately, it's even harder to justify running a solid cam, or "lifters" if you please.

:sillylol:

 

I'm going to be running one in the near future but probably end up swapping in a hyd. roller setup if I'm not happy with it. I've had the cam and lifters sitting around the house for quite a while so time is getting close to actually putting them into the 350 lol. Probably be running the engine up to 7200 rpm.

 

I like the high rpm pull to 7500 rpm, sounds a little meaner too

 

Yeah, a bit crisper sounding Should be fun once I get mine going. Found out my AFR 195's should be here first week of Sept. They're getting shipped out on the 29th :rockon:

 

Gotta love the sound of a solid lifter Chevy

Gotta hate the constant lashing of a solid lifter Chevy

 

Yes and
Yes.
A friend of mine is building a 400 with solid roller lifters. I told him not to tighten the valve covers too much.

Don't they make a hydraulic lifter that doesn't bleed down at low RPM also?

Evil Cartman-
On the same motor, my friend is using the aluminum AFR heads. When he got them, they were awful pretty, until we noticed that they had to be completely disassembled and de-burred. The CNC porting is a thing of beauty, but they did not de-burr the heads where they machined them for the head bolts. The burrs fall off just by looking at them and the heads are full of them. He called AFR and they offered to send new valve seals- that is all. If some poor schlep was all excited and put them on and didn't notice the burrs, it would trash the engine in minutes. Pretty lame.
I will post pics and follow up info on the vendor feedback boards.

S-D

 

Well, if they need to be de-burred, no problem. I got the stuff to do that. Wish I had the software and a couple more axis on the CNC to do my own porting lol.

Ah yes, setting valve lash constantly... I don't mind working on the car, get bored if I don't hehe.

 

I run a mechanical (solid) cam and I have only had to set my lash once. I check it about once a month or before I race. I also don't have a stud girdle but I do have 7/16 screw in studs. Hydraulic cams are easier but if you want to rev higher than 6500 you have to go solid. Honestly it's not that big of a hassle, they did make factory cars with mechanical cams for a while....

 

I have run solid cams for decades; not right at the moment though.

With proper lash adjustment, they only require work about every 10-15,000 miles. If you've never had one before, you'll be under the hood pretty often, until you get the hang of it.

There was no such thing as hydraulic lifters until the 50s. So for most of the history of the "car" as we know it, solids were all that has been available. As recently as the 80s, they were still the stock setup in some cars; Chrysler slant-6s are a good example. A truly Stone Age motor by the time it was retired but effective just the same. Never got hydraulic lifters.

 

You probably don't have any of the Gen-III SBCs, then. According to the factory specifications, they are supplied with a hollow (tubular) camshaft blank. I'm guessing that is for mass reduction, faster spin-up, and less wear on the timing drive. I wonder if the new five-cylinder Chevys have a hollow camshaft set (all two of them).

The last solid cam I had was in a '67 Plymouth with a 225 crooked six. It had a ton of miles when I got it and the valves had apparently never been adjusted. No one ever adjusted them on the old Nopars, and you could hear a crooked six coming from about three blocks away. As I recall, I had about .050" on the worst exhaust valves. I adjusted them once, checked them a year later, and may have adjusted them again a year or so after that.

RB is right (of course). If the adjustment is done properly (hot) and valve train is in good condition, 15,000 miles is not out of the question before you'll even hear a sound from the lifters again.

 

I posted a review in the Product Review board. https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=198099

The de-burring can, and will, be done but, theres just no excuse for sending someting out the door in this condition.

S-D

 

Yup, I've only had to set valve lash once in the year since I've had my 363. And that was when the cam was installed and we were tuning the car

 

One of you guys mentioned the sound of a solid roller chevy. What did you mean by that? I am debating on solid roller or hyd roller. I am going to be running a holley stealth ram so probably the hyd roller but was just wondering what you meant by sound? Thanks.

 

A quiet little tappity-tappity at idle.

Solid lifters and knock sensors don't play well together.

 

with a hyd lifter, the oil pressure takes up the slack in the system, so as the metal parts are cold, the pressure holds the rocker on the valve.... heat up and all the clearances get tighter but the lifter can be squished in.... and its quiet..


with a solid lifter.. theres no oil pressure to hold it together... so you have to leave a little gap between the rocker and valve for when the parts expand from heat.... but that lil gap means that every time the rocker arm touches the valve, it taps it, making a little sound...

thats a the solid roller sound.

the other one is, well solid rollers tend to be big cams... and people usualy like how big cams sound.

 

Being cheap as all-get-out myself, but still enjoying making big power, solid lifter cams (flat tappet variety) go in any motor I build that I intend to rev beyond 6500 RPMs. That's not too terribly often, but I've done more than just one or two. They do make noise, and they do make good power. Especially in the higher RPMs where hydraulic lifters tend to act a little "funky."

And here's another little tidbit- they're no harder on the valvetrain than a hydraulic cam if you set them up right and adjust lash correctly. In other words, you don't need massive valve springs which means you don't often break/bend parts and you won't wear out valvesprings like you can with an aggressive roller cam.

 

Some of the "ticky" noise from a solid cam (be it flat or roller) is caused from the valves popping shut.

When the valve is closing, for the last ~.025", there's nothing fighting it and it literally slams shut.

And (as said) part of it's from the rockers clacking around.

 

So the only point in running solid lifter is to rev higher than 7000rpm. How much torque are you loosing at low rpm ~1800-2500? Does it pass emissions? What kind of CFM do you have to run to make it worthwhile? When you say adjust while hot, how hot do you mean?

Thanks,
Jason

 

Not the point is at high rpm a soild lifter cam performs better. (there is no hyd lifter pump up to kill high rpm power)

A properly selected solid lifter cam will have a little more low end torque and throttle responce than a comparable hyd cam.
the lobe action can be a little more intense because it does not need to be dead quiet as a hyd cam does, at idle.
Yes a properly selected solid cam will pass emissions just a well as a hyd cam of the same comparable size.

You run the engine till it is fully warmed up to operating temp.
then set all the rockers on one side( cylinder bank). re warm up the motor, then adjust the other side.

 

Well, since my last post in this thread I've gotten my engine running There is a bit of noise from using a solid lifter cam but I can't hardly hear it inside the car. (exhaust is louder lol) Pulls great up to at least 6500 rpm, haven't gone any higher than that yet.

 

I am confused. When I talked to the sales rep at comp cams he said there is no cam with a 5000 rpm rev range, maybe 3500 to 4000 at best. On one level that does not make since as the car can' just magically appear at 3000-3500 rpm and then run, but the point was that the higgher you go these less you make ar lower rpm. But here it's said that you can get more torque lower in addition to the ability to run higher also

Thanks,
Jason

 

He is referring to having more torque than w/ a hydrolic cam that rev'd to the same rpm. 3500-4000 is about right. I think that the cam I am planning on has a 4200 rpm range. The comp cams xe268 that I had before was listed as going from 1600-5800 which is also 4200. That is pretty broad. You will be able to drive in more than it would be practical to race in. You also can "magically" start higher in the rpm range. Its called a torque converter, or if you have a manual, you just rev when you take off.

Ben

 

And given the current age of tunable engine management programs one can't get "off-cam" driveability?