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so this winters mods include heads and cam. going with Mast 255cc LS3 heads and trying to decide on valvetrain. i want to rev safely to 74-7600 which i know can be done on a hydraulic roller but is much better suited to a solid. has anyone gone solid? any comments pros vs cons? would you do it again? i DO drive my car! not a daily more like street/strip and cruises and the occasional "mexico grudge racing" i do not mind adjusting valves but also hear many low lash set ups hardly ever need adjustment and tend to be good for 15k+ miles. if i am to go solid roller what should i get in terms of parts like rockers, lifters, rods etc?
LLSR's are becoming more and more popular around here. Martin Smallwood and Kip Fabre are the individuals you will probably want to contact. Excellent choice on heads, by the way. NAVYBLUE just built a 394ci with Tony Mamo LS3 heads and a LLSR that did 700hp at the flywheel naturally aspirated, if that gives you any idea.
You should really call Kip and talk to him about his low lash solid rollers.
I did the switch in my car as an experiment using non-adjustable factory rocker arms. I absolutely would do it again every time, no question about it.
So far I have over 6000 miles on it with 0 adjustment. Made 20rwhp more than a hydraulic 4* smaller and I expect to get more out of it with fine tuning.
Good choice I do solid roller for my own builds key things to do are first cam selection cause it must work with everything else you have to go with it.
Two good quality supporting parts like T&D rockers and top quality lifters cause your engine reliability depend on it, done right there won't even be any maintenance over a hydraulic cam, low lash solid roller today you won't even hear them.
Running 10.5s with my A6 auto heads & cam stock block ls3 still with factory intake and throttle body.
All mods are headers cold air intake heads and solid roller cam.
I had a cam motion llsr in my ls3 418. It was a very nice setup and made good power. I used t&d rockers on stock casting ls3 heads, which presented its own challenges. Mine topped out for power around 6500 due to the factory intake.
I also had fitment issues with the taller covers vs my engine bay. It made it a head ache to check plugs, the valve covers and coils had to come off. I drive my car, more daily in the summer, so for me it was a bit of an over the top setup.
I've switched back to hydraulic, since its mostly street driven. I have my cam motion cam up for sale in the classifieds section at the moment along with the ISKY solid lifters I was using. Both the cam and lifters have less than 1500 miles on them.
The low lash solid is definitely a good option to consider if you do a fair amount of racing.
I know what you are saying with tall valve covers is a no go I tried them and couldn't stand them, went with Holly ls valve covers coils bolt up to valve cover and the covers are only like 1/2 inch taller then oem, real sweet.
Can't believe you are getting rid of the combo though.
I know what you are saying with tall valve covers is a no go I tried them and couldn't stand them, went with Holly ls valve covers coils bolt up to valve cover and the covers are only like 1/2 inch taller then oem, real sweet.
Can't believe you are getting rid of the combo though.
I had a set of Holley tall covers. No matter how much a ground out trying to get them to clear the rockers they would still hit. The only covers that I got to work was the proform covers and still had to clearance them. It was a good setup and I hope I don't regret going hydraulic later. I also had issues with the lash. I'd have them all set at zero, supposed to grow to ~ .010 when hot. I'd check them when hot, some would be .009, some would be .013 so it seemed that when hot all the lash adjustments would be off slightly. I'd wait till the next day, set back to 0, check again with better results but over time they'd be back out of spec again. All the adjusters were tight when I'd go to re-adjust. It was baffling to say the least. So really I gave up on it and went back with what I knew. If I was willing to spend more time on it or had more time to spend on it I might have stuck with it.
I still need to dyno my new setup and get it dialed in come spring time, but it's nice to know I won't have to pop the valve covers anytime soon.
I have the Holley valve covers and just went with a spacer which I think was 3/8" and it has worked out just fine with my LLSR. No problems at all.
On stock casting heads or aftermarket heads? I had a friend tell me the same thing but he had some mast 11.5 or 12 degree heads. Made all the difference in clearance. The stock ls3 heads make it tight.
I have the Holley valve covers and just went with a spacer which I think was 3/8" and it has worked out just fine with my LLSR. No problems at all.
I'm using the spacer as well with the Trick flow heads and had to do a ton of clearancing on the valve covers even after baffles where removed but I made them work, however now Holly have a taller version that should take the pain off for adjustable roller rocker arms applications.
It might be different using aftermarket rocker arms and if you are using a thicker than normal pushrod but Kip told me if I had issues with too much warm growth to set my lash hot and not really even worry about cold lash. There would be enough preload flex it wouldn't be an issue for the minimal time the engine was dead cold.
I set all mine to 0 or just barely tighter cold and they were all .008-.011" hot last time I checked them. I'm getting ready to check hot lash again in the upcoming weeks and if it's good this time I won't touch it again until I need to replace valvesprings. So far I've checked it 3 times and only one of them changed and that was by .002".
I expected brand new pushrods, lifters, and cam to have a couple thousandths wear to account for after some break in but I was mistaken.
I wondered if it was due to the ISKY lifters being aluminum bodies and having crazy short push rods like 6.075. The ISKY lifters are about an inch taller than a standard ls lifter.
These are the ISKY. You can see how high up the cup is on them. A standard ls hydraulic came to just about the bottom of where the bolt for the tie bar is.
On stock casting heads or aftermarket heads? I had a friend tell me the same thing but he had some mast 11.5 or 12 degree heads. Made all the difference in clearance. The stock ls3 heads make it tight.
Stock L92/LS3 castings. My lift comes in around .650".
What rockers are you using? I was at .646 lift. Had t&d shaft rockers.
Same here. Ok, I went back through my thread and I have the UMI 1/2" spacers. I should not go by my memory. Still no problems and was able to keep the same spark plug wires. One more thing though is that I have the early heads and had to clearance the heads for the rocker arms.
I just dynoed my 6.0 (4.005 x 3.622) with big 256/265 840/804 112+3 cam motion LLSR . It made 721hp@8000 rpm, you can see the video on cammotion Facebook page. We have factory LS3 style rectangle heads and jesel Mohawks. Definitely think it was worthwhile upgrading.
Btw I have a 256/265 705/705 106 cammotion LLSR cam for sale
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Thinking about going solid roller... 
Still no problems and was able to keep the same spark plug wires. One more thing though is that I have the early heads and had to clearance the heads for the rocker arms. 
