factory style roller cam in early "non roller" block.
heres my question.


i have a solid roller cam with the necked down nose, ment to be a replacement cam for a roller block. it has the necked down nose for the retaining plate.

im putting into a 400 small block chevy. now i know i need a roller timing chain because the cam gear bolt pattern is diffrent.
and i know i need my thrust button to keep it from walking forward.


reading online, i see some people mention a "spacer" that covers where the old retaining plate goes.

why would this be needed? as i see it, the thrust button keeps the cam from going forward, and the rear of the block keeps it from going backward... if i put a spacer there what would it do?? is there anything wrong with how im going about setting that up?

 

The rear of the block won't keep the cam from going backwards. There's just a freeze plug back there that will EVENTUALLY keep it from falling out the back of the motor but it's not going to help out until it's WAY too far back.

Just take a factory roller cam retaining plate, machine the ears off it and use it as your spacer. Yes, still use the cam button. Obviously, you have to use aftermarket roller lifters as the factory ones won't fit in a non-roller factory block (lifter bores are not tall enough and there's not place to bolt the factory roller "spider" in place).