I went today to look a car for sale. it was a 83 camaro with a 350. The guy said it had a solid-lift cam in it, but he put in hydraulic lifters so there wouldn't be a chance of a valve hitting a piston.? Is this guy BS'ing me? I have been around alot of motors and this one didn't have a big cam at all. idled at 700 rpm, with a little lope. I'm guessing somewhere like a 272*

 

Brad,

It can be done, but the hydraulics aren't going to like the lack of a pre-lash ramp on the cam grind - the valves in the hydraulics need a pretty slow push to seal quickly and prevent down leakage. It would be a pretty poor way to "soften up" a more aggressive cam profile. Either way, you can probably plan on changing the cam if you get the car.

 

LOL!!!! Man i give that motor 10 min MAYBE of running time & a whole lot of metal shavings in those oil passages.

Dont buy it for the motor..

IMO

 

Mixing cams and lifters don't work. Cam grinds are named hydraulic or solid for a reason. The lifters react differently to the cam profiles as Vader mentioned.

Having an engine idle with a big cam isn't hard. It's not just lift and duration but LSA and overlap also. Stock eliminator cams are limited to .430" lift at the valve but many won't idle below 1500 rpm while a prostock cam with close to .800 lift will idle at 1000 rpm. A lopy idle is achieved with a narrow LSA. 108-110 is good while a typical street car is 112-114.

A hydraulic cam with .500 lift and solid cam with .500 lift are not the same. The hydraulic cam has zero lash so the valve will open .500. The solid cam needs valve lash. If the recommended lash is .025" the the valve actually opens .475" since the cam needs to rotate and lift the lifter up .025" before the valve starts to open. By putting a hydraulic lifter on that cam, the lifter will start to open the valve right away however that little bit of a ramp on the cam is not designed for the way a hydraulic lifter works.