When to go solid roller?
TECH Resident
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 793
Likes: 0
From: Michigan
7800 huh? Not too shabby... Back in the old days some of my hydraulic rollers pretty much refused to work above 6200. I guess stuff has improved immensely! Or I just needed a lot stiffer springs. Lol
I'm unaware of any difference in bearing wear.
Yes, it feels different. I have a good friend who has never driven my car but ridden in it tons. He has my old hydraulic cam in my old LS1 shortblock. He rode in the car several times while I was tuning the new cam...he just bought a solid roller for his car. Apparently it made an impression on him too.
Rocker arms vary greatly in price. The American made name brand good stuff is ~$1100 for a set of shaft mount adjustables. Chinese knock offs are about $400 I think. Not sure on pricing for non shaft mount adjustables.
Valve covers are another $230ish or a little more if you want them with fancy raised stuff.
I probably won't have the valve covers off mine again until I feel like it's time to have the springs pressure checked as they're a few years old now.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I am speaking of the Low Lash Solid Rollers which Cam Motion has been using a lot of. I am not an expert by any means but it's my understanding this type of cam setup is specifically designed to be reliable in a street application. If you are seriously considering it, talking to Kip at Cam Motion would probably give you more information than I could, I just like to share my results when I can. My dad is a mechanic and an old school hot rodder who had solid rollers back in the 70s and he was concerned about me switching due to noise, maintenance, and thinking it would require gnarly valvesprings and things like his used to. None of that is the case with the LLSR design. My top end has less sewing machine noise than with any of the 3 hydraulics I've used.
Again, it's not for everyone. I'm just sharing my experience and what information I have because it's a bit of a different animal. I researched several of the build threads on here before I agreed to switch and I forget most of those threads are a bit buried so most people might not be familiar with some of the stuff above.
In my research I did find a magazine article on LS3 class spec race engines where some of those guys were doing a setup like mine using a LLSR and shimming the rockers to set lash to fit within their class rules. There are some other build threads on ls1tech too, might be worth digging around for them. Speedtigger is a mod here now and his was one of the ones that I found really helpful.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...k-results.html
Yes, it feels different. I have a good friend who has never driven my car but ridden in it tons. He has my old hydraulic cam in my old LS1 shortblock. He rode in the car several times while I was tuning the new cam...he just bought a solid roller for his car. Apparently it made an impression on him too.
Rocker arms vary greatly in price. The American made name brand good stuff is ~$1100 for a set of shaft mount adjustables. Chinese knock offs are about $400 I think. Not sure on pricing for non shaft mount adjustables.
Valve covers are another $230ish or a little more if you want them with fancy raised stuff.
I probably won't have the valve covers off mine again until I feel like it's time to have the springs pressure checked as they're a few years old now.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I am speaking of the Low Lash Solid Rollers which Cam Motion has been using a lot of. I am not an expert by any means but it's my understanding this type of cam setup is specifically designed to be reliable in a street application. If you are seriously considering it, talking to Kip at Cam Motion would probably give you more information than I could, I just like to share my results when I can. My dad is a mechanic and an old school hot rodder who had solid rollers back in the 70s and he was concerned about me switching due to noise, maintenance, and thinking it would require gnarly valvesprings and things like his used to. None of that is the case with the LLSR design. My top end has less sewing machine noise than with any of the 3 hydraulics I've used.
Again, it's not for everyone. I'm just sharing my experience and what information I have because it's a bit of a different animal. I researched several of the build threads on here before I agreed to switch and I forget most of those threads are a bit buried so most people might not be familiar with some of the stuff above.
In my research I did find a magazine article on LS3 class spec race engines where some of those guys were doing a setup like mine using a LLSR and shimming the rockers to set lash to fit within their class rules. There are some other build threads on ls1tech too, might be worth digging around for them. Speedtigger is a mod here now and his was one of the ones that I found really helpful.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...k-results.html
Last edited by thunderstruck507; Apr 22, 2016 at 04:37 PM.
