School a 4v Guy

switch96 · Oct 22, 2009

I apologize in advance for my naivety. What year 5.0's (Foxes and SN's) had solid/flat tappet and what years had hydraulic/roller or solid/roller, etc. Just curious :grin:

Javi · Oct 22, 2009

Getting a 5.0?

darkside. lol

switch96 · Oct 22, 2009

Haha, not for this car :grin:

Just getting into building, I don't really want to start with a flat tappet motor.

hottwheels04 · Oct 22, 2009

I belive anything newer mid 80's and up is solid roller, I kno the old school 60's-70'searly 80's were flat tappet I belive, When I 1st got my 5.0 the stock motor was junk and i put in a junkyard 1970's 351 and that was flat tappet it was junk sounded likea tractor, alot of torque but had no power with a cam swap to flat tappet conversion it made a big diff.

Paul · Oct 22, 2009

No Mustang (that I know of) ever came with a solid (mechanical) roller cam.

All of the 87-95 5.0s were hydraulic roller.

NXcoupe · Oct 22, 2009

Thank you Paul, I was about to blow a gasket here! Ok, 85 was the first year for a roller cam, hydraulic roller cam. 84 and earlier had flat tappet hydraulic camshafts. 82 and later had 50 oz inbalance and the 81 and earliers had the 28 oz. I may be off a year here correct me if I'm wrong and I will change it. 94 was the first year for a hydraulic roller cam 351, very rare to find, as they only made these for a few years. All other 351's were flat tappet hydraulic. Ford has not used a solid flat tappet camshaft since 1967 with the end of the 289 hipo engines. Earlier 260 V8's some had solid camshafts I believe. Hope this clears up things.

Paul · Oct 22, 2009

Thanks for added info. I couldn't remember when 5.0s switched from hydraulic flat tappet to hydraulic roller. Mostly because I'm old and senile.

NXcoupe · Oct 22, 2009

No worries, since they put me in the home, I have a lot more free time to memorize useless tidbits of info.

J/K!!!

switch96 · Oct 22, 2009

You guys rock!!

96_SVT_Cobra · Oct 22, 2009

prolly a dumb question, but is there an advantage to having a hydraulic roller cam over a solid flat tapped cam cuz im thinking about building a 351 based motor?

Paul · Oct 22, 2009

Roller motor can have more aggressive cam profiles (ramp rates) so you can "bang" the valves open more quickly.

You can convert flat tappet blocks to roller. I did. There are topics covering the conversion on here.

96_SVT_Cobra · Oct 22, 2009

ok thanks for the info Paul

Blind · Oct 22, 2009

automatic (and CFI) `85 mustangs still had the flat tappet cam, trucks still had the flat tappet in `86 for sure because I owned an EFI, flat tappet `86 f-150 5.0, I believe the trucks all had the flat tappet blocks until `94 just like the 5.8L trucks did.

carb mustangs in `85 got the roller blocks, as did all 86+ 5.0 mustangs.

NXcoupe · Oct 22, 2009

I was focusing on mustangs. Yes, even tho they were CFI and flat tappet hydraulic, they still had a roller block if it was in a mustang. I know for a fact that an 89 truck had a roller block, but had a flat tappet hydraulic cam in it. and the bolt holes were not tapped for the spyder hold down bolts. I pulled one out and apart from an 89.

5.0kid · Oct 22, 2009

idk, i have what was said to be an 86 block from a truck and it was not a roller block-didn't even have the spots to drill and tap some, so i had to put in the link-bar lifters to convert it.

LAFENATU · Oct 22, 2009

Paul said:
You can convert flat tappet blocks to roller.

$$$$

Paul · Oct 22, 2009

Nah. All I did was drill/tap the block for the spider retainer, then use OEM lifters/dogbones. Ed Curtis cut the cam and it was no problem.

Paul.

GDTrumbo · Oct 22, 2009

NXcoupe said:
Thank you Paul, I was about to blow a gasket here! Ok, 85 was the first year for a roller cam, hydraulic roller cam. 84 and earlier had flat tappet hydraulic camshafts. 82 and later had 50 oz inbalance and the 81 and earliers had the 28 oz. I may be off a year here correct me if I'm wrong and I will change it. 94 was the first year for a hydraulic roller cam 351, very rare to find, as they only made these for a few years. All other 351's were flat tappet hydraulic. Ford has not used a solid flat tappet camshaft since 1967 with the end of the 289 hipo engines. Earlier 260 V8's some had solid camshafts I believe. Hope this clears up things.

Don't forget about the '69 & '70 302 & '71 351 BOSS engines. Were they not solid flat tappet also??

GT

Blind · Oct 22, 2009

Paul said:
Nah. All I did was drill/tap the block for the spider retainer, then use OEM lifters/dogbones. Ed Curtis cut the cam and it was no problem.

Paul.

the cam is critical, and can't be as radical as a true roller blocks cam can be, the 351w I'm building right now is a `91 block and will need what's called a 'small base circle' cam so that the lifters don't stick too far out of the block and get proper oiling.