hello guys,
just wanted to ask a couple of questions if i may r.e installtion of a hydraulic roller cam in a 4 bolt block.

i saw a couple of cam accesories such as a danny bee brand block protector which comes with wear plates and double sided torrington bearing, # 294-1110 from jegsperformance.com
apparently to help protect against engine block wear from timing chain.
next is a crane cams roller style cam button ,# 270-99164-1 also from jegs and a solid cam button, # 720-1183 from jegs as well.
i noticed that on my 4 bolt roller block that it came with a 2 bolt cam retaining plate.
so do i really need to bother and install any of the above products please ?? or just use the cam retaining plate bracket that bit came with ??

the cam i ordered is a 236/242 duration @ .50 ",111 lobe seperation,4-7 fire order swap,.585/.590 " lift @ 1.6 ratio,small base circle with billet core and 292/300 advanced duration. and i also brought a cloyes true double roller sprockets and chain speed set, # 9-3145.
on there directions they say you can advance or retard the sprocket.
them saying that retarding will increase high rpm performance and advacing cam timing will increase low end torque.
which way should i go do you think ??

also when install sprockets, i fit cam sprocket @ 6'o clock yeah ?? and crank sprocket @ 12' oclock yeah ??, which will make distributor 2 # 6 firing position not # 1 ??

i hope that i can please get some ideas and help please r.e this.
thanks very much
glen

can any one please help and advise ??
thanks
glen

The number of main cap bolts has nothing to do with the cam installation. At the beginning of the post you say "installtion of a hydraulic roller cam in a 4 bolt block.", without mention of whether it is a roller cam block or not. Later you say, without the benefit of capital letters, "i noticed that on my 4 bolt roller block". If you really have a roller cam block, just install a stock style roller cam using stock roller cam parts. Easy!

RACE ON!!!

hi cfi-efi,
thanks for the reply back.
yep it is a roller block !!
can you please expalin what stock roller cam parts is then please ??
as i brought this bare 4 bolt roller block and not sure if i am missing any parts you see.
and what about the question i asked wheather or not to advance or retard cam sprocket timing ??
what should i go with please ??
and do i fit cam and crank sprockets at 6 & 12 o,clock do i please ??
thanks
glen

Is this an LTx block? What are the casting numbers?

Use a cam for a 1987 and up roller cam engine, the timing set for the same and the stock retainer plate with the two bolts. You don't need any of those fancy, expensive, retro roller cam parts in the catalogs.

If you suspect the cam will be weak on the bottom end, like you were told, advance it. If you think it will be lacking on the top end, retard it. Better yet, buy the right cam for the job and degree it in, straight up.

Aligning the dots is much easier with the cam sprocket dot at 6:00 o'clock. It doesn't matter if the cam sprocket dot is at 12:00 or 6:00. At 12:00 the engine is on TDC at the start of the #1 cylinder power stroke. At 6:00, it is the #6 cylinder that is starting the power stroke. Once the cam sprockets are installed. if you want #1 at TDC, rotate the crank one turn.

RACE ON!!!

hi cfi-efi & droptopce,
ok thanks for the reply again.
im not sure of the block numbers as the block is still at the engine machinists.
i guess with cam specs such as 236/242 duration @.50" and 111 lobe sep and 292/300 advanced duration with 4-7 fire order swap it will be a good mid-top end cam so i guess any thing that may help low end torque i will adjust for and advance the cam alignment!
thanks very much for your time and advise.
cheers
glen

What displacement are you going with? Greater than 383?

That cam should make great power. In a stock cuber you'd have to rev it pretty high to see the power, and as as the cubes go up the RPM where that cam will make power will start to come down.

If you're doing a 383+ with a great flowing set of heads, advancing the cam to try to get more bottom end power out of the engine in kind of creating a contradictory combo. It's like buying heads designed to make power at 5000+ RPM's, and then buying an intake designed to make power from idle to 4500; and hoping that you'll have the best of both worlds. Well, it doesn't work that way. You'll end up with the negatives of both components and the positives of neither.

If you are going with more inches, I really doubt you'll need more bottom end power. Usually, the extra displacement really helps the low end torque; and even if the low end isn't satisfactory to you, there's other ways to compensate rather than advancing the cam and creating a mis-matched combo. Gears, converter, and a couple other things can really help create a car that's really fun at low RPM.

What kind of power band are you looking for? And what displacement are you going with?

hi josh,
how are ya!
thanks for the extra info you pointed out!!
yep motor is a 388 c.i.stroker ,forged with ligth weight internals and 8 throttle bodies.
i will be using afr ported competition 195 cc heads and most likely 3.90 or 4.10 gears with 6 speed.
cams rev range kicks in from 2,200 -6,200 rpm btw.
cheers
glen

Emo-vet?

I remember the 8 throttle body saga from the other forum. They have arrived.

Quote:

yeah emo-vet !!
im the one with the 8 t/b intake.
the 8 t/b saga is cause the standard ecm with a chip wont run such a technicaly advanced intake properly thats why!!
my user name on corevtte forum was emo-vet.
used name shae, who is my second son and i registered after him.
any thing else you would like too know ??
cheers
glen