I am nearing the assembly of my 383 for my 84 Camaro and I was wanting some input as to how much gain there really is with a hydraulic roller.

I was considering the Comp XS282 solid flat-tappet or the Comp XR288HR hydraulic roller. The added cost of running a roller is steep, but I'm willing to pay if it will make that much of a difference.

Here's the combo.

4-bolt 350 block, .030 over
10.5:1 compression ratio (flat top pistons, block decked .010 and heads will be milled by my cylinder hear guru for compression)
AFR 195 heads
Scat 3.75" stroke crank, Scat rods
Harland Sharp 1.5 Roller rockers
TH350
TCI "Streetfighter" 3000 stall converter

And....

Moser 9" rear with 4.11's
Spohn SFC's, Spohn TQ arm and crossmember

My goals are to basically run as well as I can on pump gas. And still be able to drive it the 40 miles or so to the track.

 

The difference between a solid roller and a similar profile flat tappet can be as great as 30hp,definetly worth it in my opinion.

 

I am pretty good with DD2000, provided it isn't 100% accurate, but can tell if the gains/losses are there. I will get some results for you later tonight and post them here

 

I've read many articles saying that rollers are well worth it, I have tried this by swapping in a roller over my flat tappet and I noticed a rather large gain. In my opinion it is well worth it, no annoying cam break in, more horsepower, and you can re-use the lifters on different cams.

 

For a street engine....

If you have to go through the rather costly process of converting an older flat tappet engine to a roller cam you'd be better off spending that money on better heads. More bang/buck in the heads. If you already have a roller cam block and lifters, then the cost of just stabbing in another roller cam is not nearly as steep and probably worth doing.

 

Well, I ordered the Comp XR288HR and roller lifters today along with the rest of the required parts to get this thing finished. Hoping to have it running and driving sometime in August, maybe the end of July.

Damon, I was under the impression that the AFR 195's were a pretty awesome head.

 

yea thats what I was thinkin The labor of changing the heads makes it a pain. You will be very happy with the roller, flat tappets are good, but the only thing really going for them is simplicity and cost nowadays.

 

Nate- the AFRs are great heads. I have a set of the 190s on my current 383. I'm just saying that if you spent the extra money on even better heads (professionally ported specifically for your application) you'd get better results at the end of the day than spending the money on a roller cam.

It's always a tough thing to pass judgement on somebody else's combo when they have already ordered the parts. Little late to ask what-if questions. The motor has effectively already been built, except for the tuning.

 

Great cam there for the street!

I'm asking because yesterday I just picked up my AFR195's from getting them professionally ported(Ran out of time for doing it myself), and they set them up with the Comp 985-16 spring rather than the 986-16 spring to ensure enough seat pressure for 6500 RPM operation. I'm using a roller retrofit cam that is one step down from yours, the 230/236 duration cam on a 112 LSA.

By the way, unless you are running a D-port header on those heads, you can easily pick up 11 cfm of flow on the exhaust by making the port rectangular to match your headers. In addition, a little short-side radius rework will make a good 7 cfm difference on the intake.

The AFR head will respond great when you get around to having them ported.

Here's some of my work:
http://www.ws6transam.org/afr195.htm

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll be sure to make a few posts here to let everyone know what kind of ET's it runs and in what conditions, and how much I like/dislike it.