roller vs. hydrolic cam

[dr_frankenstein]

Flat Tappet all the way!

A.j.

 

[twodafloor]

I learned the hard way on flat tappets in Buick turbo motors

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

So what exactly is the problem?
1-The cam material?
2-The lifter material?
3-The brake in process?
4-The higher lift?
5-The longer duration?
6-The Stronger springs?
7-What about using the OE springs?

My engine has 150K plus miles on the OE cam.
My other car has 113K plus on the OE cam.

Why can’t I expect that same type of mileage from a new cam?

 

[TURBOELKY]

So what exactly is the problem?
1-The cam material?
2-The lifter material?
3-The brake in process?
4-The higher lift?
5-The longer duration?
6-The Stronger springs?
7-What using the OE springs?

My engine has 150K plus miles on the OE cam.
My other car has 113K plus on the OE cam.

Why can’t I expect that same type of mileage from a new cam?

I dont personally have an answer for that. But I just pulled out a flat tappet cam from a hot air engine out back, and 5 lifters had small chunks missing from the bottoms, and were all somewhat concave!! I'm not sure if its stock, but i'm pretty sure it is since the rest of it is un-touched.

I was reading online on another site, this one engine builder was whiping roller cam lifter wheels too! they also mentioned the issue of zddp missing in the oils. It all makes no sense. What can you do?

 

[BlackBandit]

the shafts are not the problem, its when the push rod wears through the stamped steel rocker arm. If you search on here, you'll find pics. I picked up T&D roller rockers for $250 shipped with 500 miles on them but those deals are far and few. As others attitudes are, he's already in the engine for a good amount of mula, why not go all out right? why skimp on a timing chain? the ideal of a roller motor, would also include roller rockers.

(debates are great)

The shafts were the only problem I've had and the only one I've seen come up on a regular basis. That's not to discount that the the stock rockers might be a problem, I'm just saying I haven't noticed a whole lot of people bringing it up. I did a search but I just got a bunch of posts about broken shafts because I had to put the word "rocker" in it.

You did get a screaming deal on those T&D's. If I got a deal like that I would definitely jump on it. I don't feel I need them but they would be nice.

Also, I agree with the doing it right thing but you don't have to pay a ton of money to "do it right." I mean, you can get a comp timing set with a billet crank gear for $60. It's not like you're putting crap in the engine and it's not going to slow you down or make you less reliable. Now, if you're going to play around with your cam retard and advance allot, or you feel you have degree it to an exact position, or they're the only ones with the right size set, then I could see going with a set like the rollmaster. The truth is though most people don't need it. To me it seems like allot of guys get caught up in the mind set that if you don't have the most expensive stuff it's not "done right." Proof positive that advertising works IMO. Also, there's nothing wrong with building a motor that's not a full roller motor. I'd rather have a roller cam and a stock rocker setup than a flat tappet cam. Another thing to think about is that if you were to go roller cam with a stock rocker setup you can always upgrade the rockers later if you need/want to.

One last thing to consider when building an engine is use. The guys daily driving their stuff are probably going to see more problems with shafts and rockers than the guy that only runs it once a month.