I came into posession of a 1994 pickup truck (I think) 350 block with a one piece rear main seal. In the deal I also got a weird Edelbrock intake manifold that was supposed to have been on this engine, that is like an old style manifold EXCEPT that it has ONLY the two middle bolt holes on each side sitting up at a more straight angle, sorta like Vortec manifold bolt angles. Has anyone ever seen something like this before?

And, the block valley seems to have bosses cast into it like I think might be the places where the roller lifter "spider" hold down would be that keeps the roller lifters aligned on a roller lifter engine. So, my question is- can I just get a spider, mark where the holes would be, drill and tap them and then be able to run a hydraulic roller cam? Or are other modifications needed to make the block into a hydraulic roller block? And is running a hydraulic roller worth the trouble?

 

Yes that intake manifold is normal for '87+ center-bolt heads. GM changed the bolt angle in '87 to make it easier to get to those four center bolts on the intake manifold with the newer fuel injection manifolds.

Yes, the truck engines sometimes used roller cam blocks, but they still had flat tappet cams until 1996. You can use a truck block and drill and tap the bosses to use the roller cam spider with no problems.

Roller cams are definitely the way to go. Super Chevy just did a comparison article in the July 2008 issue, and a smaller 218/224 roller cam made more vacuum, more power, and more torque than a larger 230/236 flat tappet camshaft.