I'm helping a buddy on his 92 350 with a cam swap and recommended he replace the timing set too. But I'm having trouble understanding the difference between a roller cam one and pre 86 one. Alot of the ones I've looked at say they are not for factory roller cam motors. Also the guy at my local oriely auto gave my buddy one that says on the manufacturers website will not work. So whats the difference for a roller and non roller sprocket setup?

 

The bolt pattern on the front of the cam is different: the roller cam one, the bolts are REAL CLOSE together. Also the bore for the cam nose is smaller. Gotta be that way to fit inside the retainer plate.

Crank gear & chain are the same.

 

Thank you.

 

Normal flat tappet cams are automatically forced into the block when the engine is running. With a roller cam, there needs to be a retainer to hold the cam into the block. For a non roller block with a roller cam installed, there's a button that fits in the end of the cam gear that presses against the timing chain cover to keep the cam pushed into the block.

As already mentioned, if the cam requires a retaining plate, it will use a different timing chain set.