I am in the process of having my 396 rebuilt. The car is going to be strickly street, has a close ration 4 spd and 3.73 rear end. I was asked by my builder if I wanted to put a roller cam in it. (about $1K extra).

What I don't know is, for a street car, is the increase in performance worth the $'s. I've done some research on this but can't quantify the improvement.ie, if I was only going to get an 10% increase in performance, probably wouldn't do it.

Anybody have experience with going from a flat tappet to a roller. What were your results.

Thanks

For strictly street I would say no Dan. Yes, the performance gain is worth it when comparing apples to apples, but for a 4 speed car strictly street No.

Now I wouldn't race with anything but a solid roller, but my '69 ragtop in my sig will be getting a solid flat tappet.

Should be about $800 for a roller setup so about $600 more compared to flat tappet.

Hope this helps...

I would say no, its probably not worth it. Yes, a properly specd roller will surely make more power, but I dont see it being worth it on the street. Heres my thinking on this. You take a 396, build it with about 10:1 compression, use good factory oval ports with a little port work and even keep the stock valve sizes, use a 750 carb, headers, a performer rpm intake and a HYDRAULIC XE 274 cam(or a comparable voodoo cam that Harold would approve of is a better idea). When that motor is done right there, its an easy 12 second motor and you will never be able to use all that power in street trim out of the hole unless you dont run strictly street tires. Street tires would go up in smoke right now with that hydraulic cammed motor, so what do you need even more power for? I dont think you do. You will never know the extra power is there cause youll just spin the tires that much harder with a more powerful, roller cam. Youd know the difference if you could hook or if you were running from 60 miles per hour on, but on the street most people want the 0-60 to scream, not 60-100. Know what I mean. If you are talking about only street driving, a car that could run 12's is the most fun to drive I think. You get much faster than that and the only time it really performs up to its potential is at the track. Its not hard to make 400 horsepower and 400ft lbs(or more) with the right hydro camshaft and thats plenty for a strictly street car.

Another vote for solid flat tappet for the street. Especially if you dont have the hi-flowing heads a roller cam would prefer! Have your heads flowed and match a cam to that.

All good points, makes sense to me.

Thanks for all of your input, guess I will stay with a good Voodoo flat tappet cam.

For what it's worth, I wound up throwing in the hyd. roller setup I had into my 408. But then again, all the parts I had were MKIV so I had a choice, let them sit on the shelf and collect dust, sell them off and take a hit or use them in the MKIV motor. The next motor I have is a GENVI and will use all different parts (cam, lifters and timing set) so it was almost a no-brainer. What's it really worth, I have been told about 40 - 50 HP and 40 - 50 ftlbs of torque in a 400" BBC. Should put me at 480 - 500 tq / 440 -450HP. Based on this maybe it is. When you look into the total dollars of it, you are effectively getting 454 hyd flat tappet power from a 400" hyd roller motor. In this case, 800.00 is a lot cheaper than 3000.00 for what I consider a baseline 454 motor with stock heads. Here again it is all matter of personal oppinion, but I doubt I will ever go back to flat tappet cams. Factor in the total price tag of what it costs to do a motor these days and the upgrade isn't that significant.

All up to you and your budget. If you have it to spend go for it, if your strapped don't sweat it.

Originally posted by GRN69CHV:
For what it's worth, I wound up throwing in the hyd. roller setup I had into my 408. But then again, all the parts I had were MKIV so I had a choice, let them sit on the shelf and collect dust, sell them off and take a hit or use them in the MKIV motor. The next motor I have is a GENVI and will use all different parts (cam, lifters and timing set) so it was almost a no-brainer. What's it really worth, I have been told about 40 - 50 HP and 40 - 50 ftlbs of torque in a 400" BBC. Should put me at 480 - 500 tq / 440 -450HP. Based on this maybe it is. When you look into the total dollars of it, you are effectively getting 454 hyd flat tappet power from a 400" hyd roller motor. In this case, 800.00 is a lot cheaper than 3000.00 for what I consider a baseline 454 motor with stock heads. Here again it is all matter of personal oppinion, but I doubt I will ever go back to flat tappet cams. Factor in the total price tag of what it costs to do a motor these days and the upgrade isn't that significant.

All up to you and your budget. If you have it to spend go for it, if your strapped don't sweat it. Sound advice. If you purchase good quality parts initially, it will pay off in the long run. The critical and expensive parts of my valvetrain (solid rollers and roller rocker arms) are rebuildable. Moreover, they can be reused on another motor at a later time. You could invest in a nice roller valvetrain now, and at a later time when you upgrade to say a 454, you have those components available.

Either way, have fun!