a friend of mine went to a 351 windsor non roller block. He needs a cam and lifters for it, but I have never messed with a 351 and I don't believe he has either, so I'm trying to help him out

visual inspection, how do I tell a flat tappet from a hydraulic roller from a solid from a solid roller cam?

does only the hydraulic roller need link bar lifters to use, if not, how do I decide it can use mechanical solid lifters?

appreciate all help in advance,
Rick

 

This is beyond me Rick. I'm a really good wrench,.. but not that great of a mechanic.

To the best of my knowledge what separates a roller from a flat tappet and solid from a hydraulic are the way the lobes are designed. I have seen a flat tappet hydraulic cam used in a roller motor and from what I saw the motor ran great. Whether a roller cam can work with flat tappet lifters I really dont know. I have no idea how to visually tell one from another. I honestly dont know. Some of the more experienced guys can probably give a better description then I can.

They do have conversion kits to put roller lifters in non roller blocks. I'm pretty sure they only work with the link bars as thats all that I have seen in the converted blocks. I've personally yet to actually build a 351 of my own.

The only time I would use solid lifters is if I'm building a motor that will see 7500+ RPMs and primarily in a track only car. My father inlaw and I built a solid lifter 327 (SBC) years ago. The motor saw 9000 RPM on the big end. It was not a very street friendly motor and very temperamental trying to run it through the staging lanes. The valve train needed constant attention, readjusting the lash almost every time out. For a street/strip car I think hydraulic lifters would be less of a PITA.

Hurst

 

thanks I'm in the same boat as you (and also have run a solid lift high compression chevy , fast but ran like shit!!)

 

if you use the conversion kit with the holddown and the dogbones,you will need a small base circle cam.
If you get the link bar type hyd. roller lifters you can use a regular hyd roller grind.

the lobe ramps are much more aggresive on the roller cams over the flat tappet camshafts Rick.

I have seen hyd roller cams used with solid roller lifters,I've never seen roller lifters used with flat tappet cams(or vise versa).

If he has the cash to buy the link bar lifters,I'd go roller if not then just order a flat tappet cam kit.
He will need different lenght pushrods for the roller setup

 

You can do it resonably cheap with a regular 5.0 roller cam set up. Uses same cam, lifters, timing chain and spyder. You will only need different pushrods (longer). If its a flat tappet block, and you're not going to use ^^^ set-up, doesnt matter if its hydralic or solid roller, the other alternative is link bar. Peronally, if you're not going to use the 5.0 stuff, and its not over .550 lift, I would run the flat tappet stuff.