Denny and several others have had their Solid Roller cams not live as Daily drivers due to the combination of high valve spring pressures and the lack of adequate oil volume at idle. Add my name to that sad list. The car really ran super strong and I was so happy with it. Yesterday morning, I started the car and it was loping away happily as I walked back into the house and waited for the frost on the window to melt for about 4 minutes. Imagine the sick feeling in my stomach as I walked out the door to hear a strange chirping noise that seemed timed to the crank. I opened the hood quickly, trying to listen for the source of the chirp. As I passed my head back and forth from one side of the valve covers to other, it seemed to be coming up from the top of the intake manifold. I shut off the engine. Stood there staring at it and thinking. "Loose spark plug?" I hoped. "Pushrod on the pushrod guides?" I wished. "Loss of bearing?" I grimaced. "Loss of a cam lobe?" I winced.

I pulled the dipstick. No glitter from bearings, so I sighed in marginalized relief. I started checking the spark plugs. Darn, all tight. I pulled the magnetic oil pan bolt. Hmmm.. a few more metal whiskers than usual but nothing big nor alarming. Could be pushrod/guide scuffings. Pulled off the drivers side valve cover. I pushed and pulled on each rocker, all in various states of opening, closing, at rest. Nothing odd so far. Hmm.. that #7 cylinders rocker feel a tad larger than .010 lash. I got out my feeler gauges and checked it. Well, it's .012 so maybe since the motor has cooled off, it's within margin. I decided to go ahead and set every valves lash to see if anything looked odd. Cylinder 7, all good, Cylinder 5, all good, Cylinder 3, all good, Cylinder 1 intake, ohhhhhh crap. It had like .040 lash. I noticed when I was rotating the crank that this valve didn't seem to depress very far. So... I've been getting my turbo shortblock setup on a leisurely pace. Looks like I'll be cranking up the timeline on it now.

David K. Wilson

 

at least you were able to locate the problem quickly. **** like that sux, but it could have been the grimacing engine bearings on the bright side.

 

sorry to hear

 

That sucks man, what are using for valvetrain parts? I hope mine doesn't do that.

 

Nobody seems to believe me when I make the following statements:

• Do not use a solid roller on a street car.
• Do not use a cog belt blower on a street car.
• You may well be sorry if you put a non-OD automatic in your street car.
• You probably will not be happy with a spool in a street car.
• Do not install solid motor mounts on a street car.

Sorry that his happened, hope I don't come accross as "I told you so". Just trying to share some of what I have learned while attending the "College of Hard Knocks".

Rich

 

Point taken and taken well. I'm a eternal student in the college of hard knocks. I thought by running premium synth oil, keeping the oil changed every 3K or less, using WIX 51060 filters and having generous oil pressure (65 psi at cold idle) and an idle RPG set to 1,000 that I could avoid the solid cam 'grim reaper'. The reaper will harvest fools...

Dave (the fool) Wilson

 

Forget to mention: my bad experience with a street solid roller was with Comp
Cams lifters. No, not the "Endure X" or what ever they call them. I am not convinced that any of the new designs will work either. Maybe what some have suggested (cutting a shallow groove in the lifter more) will work? With some of the new HR profiles, the SR really isn't much better with street compatible lift/duration, so why take the chance?

Rich

 

I have been leary of this as well, one of the reasons I'm still running a HR.

 

like you said really no need to use that stuff anymore, stuff hase come a long ways.

Sorry dave.......now you know

 

Sorry to read.
What lifters were you running? How many miles were on this engine?

 

Sorry to hear of the lobe wipe.

I know people wipe cam lobes on hydraulic rollers too.

A true street solid roller profile should last quite a while in a street car in my opinion. Certainly not as long as a mild hydraulic cams though.

The reason I like street solid roller cams, (and race profile solid rollers) is that you don't need so much valve spring to tame it. The radical hydrualic lobes out there today are hard on the valve springs.

Ok, what's worse than a solid roller cam on the street? Answer: A hydraulic profile cam with a solid roller lifter on the street. Anders Envall has been running that set up on his Autoshop Racing Engines 395ci F1 blower LT1 for a few years now. Not daily driven though. Probably idle time and cold oil starts are going to kill most street solid roller set ups sooner than later.

I will add that the lifters are supposed to be replaced or rebuilt every year on a street solid roller I'm told by Comp Cams. (not too keen on anything that Comp says but this sounds quite reasonable).


Karl Ellwein
Lover of all things solid roller.

 

Agreed with the above. God forbid this starts into a lynching of SR setups now.

 

I don't think it will do that. We've seen things listed that portray a shortcoming on my part for not knowing there were methods (cutting an oil grove in the lifter bore was mentioned to oil the lobes more adequately) and hardware (Endura and Isky Red Zone Lifters) that provide pressurized oil directed to the lobes. Let me be the first to tell you that on power delivery, good god. I was sooo happy. The grin on my face the first time I got on it was equal to the first time I activated my 100 shot of nitrous.
I just want this to serve notice that people contemplating Solid Rollers need check out what's out there and what can happen.

 

What oil were you running?

My recommendation for guys running high spring pressures and or SR's are to not use the newer formulated API SM oils.

Some of the extreme pressure additives such as Zinc that were common in the oils of 3+ yrs ago have been reduced because of the potential to poision Cat's over an extended period of time if the engine has a tendency to burn oils.

Even the newer Diesel oils have reduced levels of extreme pressure additives which aid in avoiding scuffing in dry starts or a metal to metal contact scenario.

If you look at the forumulation of the "Racing Oils" such as Valvoline Racing you notice high levels of Moly and Zinc.

The older small block guys who run flat tappet cams have been grumbling for a while now that the high(er) occurences of wipeing cam lobes are a result of the newer oils... there is some science and some circumstantial evidence to suggest that this may indeed be true.

 

The Brad Penn oil, which is the old Kendall formulation (the green stuff) is a good choice for engine running high spring pressures. It has high zinc and what not like the old days. It's all I use in my race car. Multigrade is between $4 and $5/qt.

http://www.bradpennracing.com/

Rich