Help with cam ID / roller or flat tappet?

[Tom68]

I guess it's lasted because the valve spring rates aren't too high ?

Area under the lift curve would be abysmal. Race cam idle, Race cam lift, but no top end power.

Tom do you think you could explain a little bit of area under the lift curve? Would that be because of the ramp differences ?

You'll find with the roller on a flat tappet lobe the 20 thou lift through to 300 thou duration numbers will be way down.

[1980RS]

Here's the Elgin kit,

https://www.competitionproducts.com/Elg ... E1090PMDL/

[rebelyell]

Sure looks like a flat tappet . Ive heard of some people actually using rollers on flat tappet cams never heard results but I can only cringe at the thought ! But it actually looks not too bad .Were not the original roller cams just cast cores ?

All OE sbc roller cams I've seen are on a mild billet steel core; SAE 1050-1055.
most larger aftermarket cam makers have two lines of rollers; entry level on a cast core and next step up to a billet steel. Some have a third level of a tool steel or other premium billet steel core.

[Geoff2]

I think that is a roller cam, not a FT cam. FT cams have a taper on the lobes. That is going to show up on the base circle where there is no load. With a FT cam, you would expect to see wear on one side of the lobe. But the wear is uniform across the lobe, like you would expect with a roller cam.

[PRH]

It’s a FT cam.

[CamKing]

100%, that's a flat tappet cam.
Running roller lifters on it, would Kill the power, and cause valve float.
Whomever did that should have to serve jail time, for abuse of a helpless valve train.
If the builder was dumb enough to do that, you need to check everything else. No telling what else is wrong.

[Ks Fats]

Flat Tappet Tight lash series on 106 lsa; the "B" was used to denote oval track series usually BUT has been used to identify blower series also. I'd bet on it being an earlier circle track f/t grind. (oop's I see Mike has beat me to the keyboard so use this as an fyi.)

[PRH]

If the builder was dumb enough to do that, you need to check everything else. No telling what else is wrong.

Absolutely.

[PackardV8]

100%, that's a flat tappet cam.
Running roller lifters on it, would Kill the power, and cause valve float.
Whomever did that should have to serve jail time, for abuse of a helpless valve train.
If the builder was dumb enough to do that, you need to check everything else. No telling what else is wrong.

And here we thought running tight lash solids on a hydraulic grind was the ultimate speed secret - who knew solid roller lifters on a solid flat tappet would be the next big thing? No, wait for it, next it's tight lash solid rollers on a hydraulic flat grind.

[sjre]

How did this flat tappet look better than alot of rollers ive seen with miles on them ? Does this mean that a cheap flat tappet core can be used as a roller(with a mild roller grind)? What if they used a square lobe or a max area lobe ? Not going there just asking. Maybe the next best is a hyd/roller setup(tounge in cheek
) after all they said a hyd roller /solid roller lifter wont work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CamKing]

How did this flat tappet look better than alot of rollers ive seen with miles on them ?

We don't know how many miles it has on it. The OP ran it at 3 events. the original owner may have thrown those parts in, right before ho sold it.
It probably also have very low spring pressure, since it's falling on it's face at 5,500rpm.

Does this mean that a cheap flat tappet core can be used as a roller(with a mild roller grind)?

Sure, if you can find the mildest roller profile there is(it would still be nowhere near as mild as that flat tappet profile with roller lifters), and run spring pressure so low, the engine falls on it's face at 5,500rpm.

[HillClimbCamaro89]

Hey guys thanks for all the replies, I know it's been a while. Well as sad as it sounds I had an advance auto parts gift card laying around and no money for a new cam so I went ahead an ordered the only roller cam they had. It's a Lunati Performance Camshaft P/N 40120501. Specs are 248I / 248E - 526I lift / 526E lift / 112 LSA. So from what you guys are saying I guess my springs wouldn't cut it. Am I correct in thinking that roller cams take more spring pressure? Or was I floating the valves because of the flat tappet profile??? I know they are double springs not sure or pressure or wear.

Thanks again