Price difference in building a roller cam motor

[GreenFish]

What is the price difference in building an engine, say a 383-431 stroker motor, and fitting it with a roller cam as opposed to a solid or Hyd cam flat tappet? Is there any machine work required to the block?

[Cooter]

Flat tappet engine set up? Around $600.00 depending on solid or Hydraulic.

Roller? Around $900-$1300.00 depending on how radical. (Ie: Crazy rocker arm ratios requiring crazy pushrods/valve springs/etc.

[Chryco Psycho]

I agree , the cam is $400 + , lifters close to $600 , add better valve springs for $200 , roller or at least adjustable rockers for $400-500 & new pushrods for $200 + you need a cam button & a good timing chain.
 I usually figure close to $1k over a flat tappet cam .

[ChallengerHK]

Is it worth it?

[Chryco Psycho]

Depends on what you want the engine to do .
 IS it worth doing for every build ... nope , but for some builds definatly .

[1970 RT Challenger 1970]

With a roller setup, is the ZDDP less critical? Can you run an SM rated Oil with no worries?

[Chryco Psycho]

No worries with Roller cams , the SM or SN oil will work

[brads70]

The roller rocker set up I bought ( T&D) to go along with my hyd roller cam set up ( Lunati)  says to run  high zinc oil still.     ( I'm building a 451")

[Chryco Psycho]

Ok yeah the cam will not fail but there are still high load areas in the engine

[ragtopdodge]

I'm not aware of any machine work, but do the lifter-bores need to be bushed for roller lifters?

I've heard on Hemis, really tall hyd roller lifters required some grinding on the block for the pushrods to clear, but hear the newer lifters are shorter and not req'd.

[4 speed fish]

It all depends on how much HP you want,going roller will take you to the next level.

[ChallengerHK]

I'm reminded of when I used to go to Summit Point frequently. There were a few classes that didn't have many entrants and they'd put all these classes on the track at the same time. I remember that the GTP class (maxed out Pintos) were not all that slower than the GT1 class (mostly stock Porsches and some other sports cars). I remember one race where a Porsche took 5 laps to pass a Pinto, and believe me, he was trying his best. He just didn't have that much more power than the Pinto had.

My takeaway from this was that, for me, small changes in power won't amount to much. Of course, if you're drag racing, a handful of horsepower might get you the fraction of a second you need to win.

[brads70]

I'm not aware of any machine work, but do the lifter-bores need to be bushed for roller lifters?

I've heard on Hemis, really tall hyd roller lifters required some grinding on the block for the pushrods to clear, but hear the newer lifters are shorter and not req'd.

I read somewhere ( can't remember where?) that a certain manufacturer had issues with the roller lifter oil groove at full lift coming out of the lifter bore. and at the wheel end not "shrouded" enough causing no oil pressure. I can't remember who's part that was but it was some time ago and sure the new stuff has been corrected. I found a few posts over on Moparts about comp cams lifters having "issues"
No machining to the lifter bores is required with any of them as far as I know? I have a Lunati hyd  roller still to be installed.

[Chryco Psycho]

roller cams can give big performance & still maintain drivability , add EFI & the engine will run like it has never been modified

[ragtopdodge]

All modern pushrod motors have 'em (LS motors, new Gen HEMIs).  I say do it.

You can get into some radical profiles and still be driveable.