Difference in solid vs hyd roller
Ive been talking with John @ Thunder about building a stout 418 LS3 (big stroker series cam, afr 230v2s etc) and have been thinking why not just go solid roller and spin some serious RPMs?
Ive searched and searched and searched and cant find anything but classified adds, so ive turned to you guys in the racing section because this is where i usually come to get the real answers anyway.
Car is a street racing/ 1/8th mile car only. I may take it to a show every once in a while but it seems MAYBE 5K miles a year. I do my oil changes based on time rather than distance basicaly lol.
What do yall think?
I think it comes down to cost and your goals for the car. If its gonna be an 1/8 mile car what is your plans for gears and tranny? 4.56's? glide?
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Im tired of pointlessly throwing money at this bucket and wanna spend a lot once and make sure its all setup together and right
See thats the thing. I need EVERYTHING. I was already figuring on 10-12K for a hyd setup and was going to see the difference to go to solid and just make the extra HP.
The adjustments and springs on a monthly/yearly basis dont bother me as long as everything is nicely put together and runs "trouble free" hahahaha
sbc.... 1000 for a sportsman shaft rocker, 500 spring/retainer, 400 cam, 650 lifters, 250 pushrods. That's if you have a good valve already in it
With a high quality components(shaft mounted rockers) a solid roller doesn't require much adjustment. Solid cams used to require lots of adjustment and were a real pain(especially with stud girdles) but the new shaft systems are great. A good shaft mount rocker system is worth it for the extra performance and reliablity in my opinion. I check my lash 2-3 times per year and it requires very minimal adjustment. My springs would last about 3 years before they needed replacement. Thats with racing 5-6 times a year and driving to local cruise-ins and car shows on the weekend.
Crower Lifters $615
T&D shaft mount rockers arms $1055
Push Rods $156
Valve springs $265
Those are the prices I got through my machine shop. The total price for my 408 build including ported TFS heads, callies rotating assembly, port matched super victor, machine work, assembly etc was about 11K. You could spend more or less building something similar depending on what parts you choose and who you have build it but I think I got a pretty decent price. My machine shop gave me better prices on most components than I could get from summit or jegs. The only thing I supplied was the block, covers, and balancer.
I started the LS build from scratch once I sold my SBC so I had to buy all this stuff anyway whether I went hyd. or solid so it was an easy choice for me to go with a solid roller. It would be a harder choice if I already had the valvetrain setup for a hydraulic roller.
SS4Luck, my goals are similar to yours. I street drive my car a little and race a few times a year and I plan on keeping it N/A. I'm hoping my combo will run in the very low 10 range or maybe high 9 on a good air day. I'll find out how it runs later this year.







But what is a expected cost of a solid roller setup? 