Posts: 111
Joined: 11/21/2007 From: Bakersfield, CA Status: offline
Hydraulic lifter cams require almost no attention. Solid lifters do require some maintainance, though if installed with good hardware, they are not too much trouble. Solid lifters will usually allow more RPM, so if properly spec'ed out they should build more HP.
Solid roller cams generally have more agressive profiles than hydraulic roller. The trade off is more noise and a bit of extra maintenece(though not much) for more power.
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Who cares how much horsepower it has, all that matters is how fast it goes!
Best run 13.23 at 106.97mph with a 2.183 60' Times from before tune and driver mod.
Thanks-so the solid roller is more powerful, more Rpm capable, and more maintenance. What do you need to do to keep them maintained? Are solid roller cams streetable?
The right solid roller can be streetable, and you need adjustable valvetrain since you have to set lash. They only need periodic adjusting/checking. If you use good parts then maybe a couple times a year. If you race a lot then you can play it safe and check every few months or after every time you race.
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Who cares how much horsepower it has, all that matters is how fast it goes!
Best run 13.23 at 106.97mph with a 2.183 60' Times from before tune and driver mod.
The solid cams are not as reliable but it's not the fact that they are solid that makes them that way. It's the spring pressures related to most solid lifter cams. As 67Mustang said, they have aggressive profiles. To keep a lifter on the downside of a lobe at high rpm you need some killer valve springs.
I've seen some of Comp's listings, and they had a OTS solid roller for 351W that they listed as "easy on parts." You could get a solid roller with a more gentle ramp rate to save it from beating the valvetrain up.
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Who cares how much horsepower it has, all that matters is how fast it goes!
Best run 13.23 at 106.97mph with a 2.183 60' Times from before tune and driver mod.
I wouldn't put a solid lifter cam in a car that's mostly stock or even just mildly modified. They'll give a race engine extra power at HIGH rpm's, they won't enough good to a mildy modified engine to make them worth the trouble.
And you don't need a solid lifter cam on a turbocharged engine
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Hydrolic Cam vs Solid Roller - 
