Hello all, I've been doing a porting job on a 1972ish head in preparation of being dropped on an old engine. Turns out the truck I'm buying is a 1982 with hydraulic cam. So, I can't just drop on the head and wait it till I switch the cam at some time in the future - it all needs to be done at once.

Are there any issues with reverting to a manual rocker assy and manual cam? I know of the oil being provided to the rocker shaft via the camshaft rear and through the head to the rocker bolt - will replacing the head with an old manual one just block the oil supply to the rocker arms with no ill effects?

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

Yes, you can.
No, it doesn't.
All you need to know about the differences in the hydraulic and mechanical heads and valvetrains is discussed HERE.

A pre-1981 "mechanical lifter" head will bolt onto a post-82 hydraulic cam equipped motor just fine. The only trick to watch out for is to use the rearmost rocker arm shaft hold down bolt that matches the head. If you install the hydraulic camshaft rocker arm shaft onto the 72 head, you will need to drill out the bottom of the rearmost hole in the rocker arm shaft to slightly larger than the diameter of the rearmost rocker arm shaft bolt for the 72 head. Otherwise, it all bolts right up no problem.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Other small gotcha - you have to use the valve cover from the mechanical head as the hydraulic one has slightly different shape on the gasket surface.

Good catch, I forgot that one.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Hot dog! Thanks everybody! I have an Offenhauser aluminum valve cover for the old style ready to go. I wanted to put the head on but not do the cam till Spring, looks like I can! Again, thanks for all the great info.

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

The only caveat to this is if he uses a 1975-1987 BL plug head...you can't pull the lifters out because the push rod bores are too small, so he'd have to pull the head to change the cam and lifters so he might as well do it all at one time.

True, but if he uses a "drool tube" pre-75 head (he said it was around a 72) he should be fine.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Yup, it's a "drool tube."
Have the carbs, manifold, headers, double row timing chain,, etc all waiting. Need to select a good mechanical tappet cam for torque - it's a truck. RV15?

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Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"

If you can find an RV 15 cam, yes, it is a good choice. Most likely you will need to have a cam reground to the RV 15 specs.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

I always have to ask as a double check...I had a slant six guy I met a few years back swear he had the drool tube head because the passenger side of his block made the exxon valdez look clean...after i got under the hood he had a late 70's cast crank BL head that just leaked a lot of oil from the valve cover... funny, but still... LOL.

How funny! I'd christened it the E. Valdez before I saw this comment as it leaks massively from the valve cover and probably everywhere else. Yes, I purchased the head months before I just purchased the truck last week. Gee, I wonder why the front of the valve cover on the new truck had oil pouring out?
The right front bolt and special washer were replaced by a sheet metal screw going through a 10mm socket - and were loose.

_________________
Tom
'86 Alfa Romeo Spider, red "Dinsdale"
'10 Corvette, red "" (no name yet)
'95 Ferrari 348, red "Zoom"
'04 Maserati, black "Evil"
'05 Aston Martin DB9, green "Bond, Treasury bond."
'82 Dodge W150 Power Ram, yellow "E. Valdez"