Thread: Solid lifter cam?

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Does anyone know anything about solid lifter cams? My friend told me I should look into putting one into my 302.

Im not really concerned with practicality of the car.

Has anyone done this? or have any info for me.



Thanks

solid lifter cams work the same as hydraulic cams for the most part..... get one made for your combo, use all new cam and lifter set, a viola.... you will have to adjust the valves about every 15k..... thats an easy cam change.... can get you a little more power..... but the real way to go would be a roller cam... that can benefit you even more power... more work and money to install one though

Yep, forget the solid cam and go roller. You can get a retro kit if your engine was non roller to begin with. Performance will be better and you won't have the click click or constant valve adjustments to do.

I grew up on solid cams like the Fuel Injection 30-30 cam, and you will become very good at removing valve covers and burning yourself with hot oil if you go that route.

Don

Another advantage to roller cams - you don't really have to worry about the break-in period.

The thing is I priced out a roller cam. Ouch thats allot of money. And all I do is work on my car and adjust things. Its not really a daily driver just something to work on. I dont really mind doin any extra work as far as adjusting valves goes. But do you think there would be much of a preformance gain compared to my hydraulic lifter RV cam as oppose to just getting a bigger cam for my hydraulic lifters?

I have 670 street avenger RV cam Long tube hedders ported D00E heads preformer intake. if that helps anyone with anything.

Others may have a different opinion, but I can't think of one reason to go to a solid lifter cam on the street, unless you were serious about high rpm racing. The new hydraulic cams are just so very good, and rollers are better yet.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Others may have a different opinion, but I can't think of one reason to go to a solid lifter cam on the street, unless you were serious about high rpm racing. The new hydraulic cams are just so very good, and rollers are better yet.

Don

Said before, now my .02

I can think of lots of reasons to use a solid lifter camshaft but a LOT more not. Most have to do with maintenance. It was noted thet you would have to adjust the rockers every 15K miles - actually, it becomes more like every 2-3000 miles if you run the car at all hard. This is not a job for the uninitiated and tends to be messy. In roller versions, Ford makes several very nice camshafts as well as Crane, Comp Cams and several others. This mod is not cheap as you need the camshaft, roller tappets and pushrods plus any other hardware needed to adapt the setup to the engine.

A good hydraulic camshaft(Edelbrock Performer RPM, Comp, Crane) - I've run Lunati's - they have several good street cams, matching lifters and you are ready to go.

If it's going to get any street time at all, I wouldn't bother with solids. Lots of good hydraulic grinds out there. Rather then listening to what is probably well intentioned but mis-informed friends, call up one of the cam companies tech lines, answer their questions accurately and they will recomend a suitable cam for you application.

I prefer the roller cams, yeah they cost a bit more but I sure do like the performance!!!!

The solid lift cams, flat or roller, tend to be harder on your valve train due to the dynamicsinvolved with suddenly taking up the valve lash as you come off the heel of the cam each cycle.

I didn't have to adjust mine too much as I recall; don't have a mileage estimate. I was using crane gold roller rockers with locking screws and they didn't move too much.

To minimize mess I thoroughly warmed the engine then popped off the valve covers quickly and did a 'hot' adjustment. This worked fine.

Personally today I would only run a hydraulic roller cam. More than enough for the street.

Kitz

In my opinion, there are three reasons to run a flat tappet solid lifter cam. First is the cost of a flat tappet cam over a roller, although a flat tappet solid and flat tappet hydraulic are about the same cost. Second is the clicking sound associated with solids, it just sounds cool and takes me back to the days of the solid lifter '56 Chevys, with their idle sounding like saying "potato, potato, potato, potato" real fast. Third is the ability to rev higher than hydraulics, which will generally pump up around 6,500 rpms or a little higher and float the valves.

According to rodders on other forums, solid rollers can be problematic in a street-driven vehicle due to oiling issues, while hydraulic rollers are about as good as it gets for a street driver.

I ran a 270 degree Isky solid flat tappet cam in a 302 that I swapped into my Mitsubishi pickup and was very happy with it. I don't recall any real issues with adjusting the valves because that just isn't a big deal in my opinion. I realized on installation of the cam that I would have to adjust them periodically and so routed all hoses and lines so that the valve covers would be clear and easy to remove.

So would I need new rockers and pushrods?

And does anyone have a estimate on how much a solid lifter cam and lifters would cost. I dont like goin to the hot rod shops untill I know what im looking for and I know it just pisses them off when people come in there asking for prices on things they are probally not gonna get.

so would I need new rockers and pushrods?

And does anyone have any specs on how much lift I can go with stock pistons and valves and a price for how much something like this might cost?

2000 miles doest sound like much of a hassle to me. I barely put that on in the summer. Basically saturday sunday driver. Maybe take it to the strip a few times for something do to.

heres a decent cam and lifter set for your motor http://store.summitracing.com/partde...4&autoview=sku

its the midlest solid setup i could find for your motor, and still at that lift i'd reccomend addidng roller rockers to your motor... the problem with small block fords when it comes to camming them is when you get to about that much lift, theres a chance the rockers will be hitting the rocker studs at full lift, in a somewhat upward motion, which will cause the rockers to pull the studs out of the heads slowly, roller rockers are going to be another $200 for an inexpensive set, plus guideplates are required on SBF motors, thats another $150 for machining and parts and then you'll need hardened pushrods so figure another $100

i have a homlan-moody cam they sell a couple for you motor...im not too sure how much they are but they are decent cams and come from a long line of respected and trusted performance parts. i think they are pretty much the same as really any other cam check out their website