2V Solid Cam Pros & Cons

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Anonymous

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Hello,
I was wanting to find out a little more about solid lift camshafts. What maintenance is required of them? Is there more to it other than regular adjustment of the lifters? How often is this required? Also, what performance gains could be expected of a solid VS hydrolic lifter setup assuming the cams were of the same spec? Is a solid cam worth the extra hassle or do the newer hydrolic lifters do the trick? If all that is required is adjusting the lifters every once in a while, why don't more folks use them other than full time racers? Just wondering if I aught to go solid. The car will be a week-end cruiser...
Dave
 
there noiser then hydrolic cams need adjusting every 5 to 10'000 km /miles
they probly give an extra 10 to 20hp id say
most people run hydrolic due to having none adjustable rockers and rollers are an extra 500+
drift
 
Why couldn't you just set your lifter like on a Chevvy and use a Polly Lock to lock it down?

Surely you don't have to have the rollers... 10 or 20 horsepower is quite significant when you have to grit your teeth just to reach 200 hp.

Back in the day...I was messin' with Pontiacs. They also had the type lifter adjustment where you just run the nut down and snug it up... I put a Fireball cam in a 400 I was playing with, snugged the rocker nuts down and fired it up. It choked. It bent the pushrod and spit it out like a bone when your eating fish. Actually, it bent the pushrod and I had to pull it out of the pushrod hole. It was stuck in there pretty good. The solution was a set of locking rocker nuts. It was a long time ago, I think I would set them with a thou or two of clearance w/ the valves closed and lock them down. It did the trick.

But if a solid cam is worth an additional 10 horse and all you have to do is occasional maitenance and live with the click...I may have to go with the solid lifters. How do they oil themselves? Hole in the pushrod? Any mods required when swapping from a hydrolic lifter set-up?

OK, Here's another question for you. Also a noise maker. How about a gear drive for the cam. I understand they are noisey as well. Do they add horse power too or do they just provide more precise cam dialing. I can see a chain adding friction. Seems a belt would be less...gears a little less. One maybe two horse worth of friction? Can't be that much. What are the claims for added HP? Or is it a dependibility issue? I don't see snappin one of those chains with my six but you probably could with forced induction. At least stretch it really good...

One more question. How does a basically stock xflow engine hold up to nice shot of NOS? Good breathing exhaust, tweeked Holly 350 and stock bottom end. Have you ever used the stuff on one of these?

I'm building another engine so I was thinking I aught to plum up some nozzles to it. My thought was to plum the nozzles where the injectors would normally go on an EFI motor. You know how the head is kind of cut open on the top of each port. I think if you drilled your inlet out so the nozzles pointed right there in those openings, then maybe put a 50 or 100 shot plate right under the carb. That'd have to work pretty well.

Now assuming you didn't over rev the thing and spin a bearing, what do you think the first thing to break or wear out would be? Anyone done this???
 
hey
something that makes it easyer to read break it up a bit more i use to type like you and found it easyer myself when i started braking it up more.
yeah you can do that but why bugger around when there is something that is bolt on ready to go.
ol gets pumped like they whould for a hyd but istead of going in the lifter it just goes to pushrod seat.
on a 2v unless you go yella terra there self lube top end no oil through push rods.
the general censes on cam gears is there great unless you have to have an idler gear like the ford six does then they actully bind up a little and cost more hp then a chain so long as its a double roller.
a stock 250 xflow will take 100hp shot but keep it under 5500 rpm and put better valve springs in it.

thanks addo
 
Sorry guys, I'll try to break it up a bit. I'm just finishing up the body and paint work on my car and I have to get the engine dialed in a little better. I have all these ideas, plans and grand allusions. What I would like to do doesn't always equal what I end up with.

The plan is to run the xflow, which is in the car, while I build up the 2V which is in the shed.

The xflow has a few issues which I need to iron out now that I can actually drive the car. It hasn't run but just a couple times in the last year or so while I've fixed up the car. The motor pulls real hard and for the most part runs pretty good. Much stronger than the original six. The main problem with the engine is the carb, which according to the tag came off of a sixties big block Ford big truck. The main problem being a rich condition. It doesn't smoke black or really give me any problems other than on restarts where it seems to be loaded up. You have to rev it up and clear it out on the restart. I am thinking I need to change the jet but don't know what size I should buy. The motor just isn't as crisp as I think it could be and think a smaller jet would help.

Here are a couple pics of the car, the intake I'm using and the carb. Any recommendation on jet size would be appreciated.

http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?a ... 1177954529

http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?a ... 1177954529

http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?a ... 1177954529

http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?a ... 1177954529

http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?a ... 1177954529
 
Speedy,
Left you a p.m. regarding the manual gearbox bell. Write me at mcnairds@yahoo.com or call 936-258-7577 if you want to talk about it. i am getting real close to installing my 82 x-flow with the 89 AOD gearbox in my 64 Econoline van.
David in Dayton, TX
 
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