I have an 87 Firebird base Model, and I'm rebuilding it on a Low, LOW budget. The car came with an electric fuel pump in the tank, as well as a mechanical pump on the side of the engine. That's weird to me Anyway, What is a good Cam for this Roller Lifter engine? and Can I swap Flat Tappet Lifters where Roller Lifters were in the Block? as in the Cam and Lifter Kits for Flat tappet Lifters are way CHEAPER.

 

IMHO I would stick with roller since you already have roller. The factory lifters should be ok to reuse. You can do that with roller as long as the lifters are ok. The answer to your flat tappet question is yes you can swap it, but you need longer push rods and you have to do a strict break in procedure plus you'll have to run special oil since flat tappets require ZDDP additive in the oil. Since all engines are roller cammed now days they no longer require ZDDP in the oil, so without it you'll wipe the lobes off the cam very quickly. The dual fuel pump needs to be addressed also. If your using fuel injection, use the in-tank pump. If your using a carb you'll have to drop the tank and do away with the pump in the tank and mod the pick-up to work w/o the pump there.

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

I took the liberty to change the thread title to "LG4", as that was the designation for the factory carbureted 305 V8.

Actually, that's a great system. The intent is to prevent vapor lock, which is best done with a pusher pump in the tank. It could be argued that just the in-tank electric pump with a regulator and return line would be sufficient, but the mechanical pump gives you a backup should the electric pump fail (which they have been known to do).

 

So some carbed cars actually came with two pumps? I just figured that was somebody's half *** hack job.