Technically it isn't that important on the OP/Dizzy gear to have it since the few racers using one of these cams just side step this by using a DIS system(coil pack and crank trigger) and external drive/remote oil filter system for their engine.

If you are going to spend the $$$ to do this you might as well go all the way.

Also food for thought: there is one domestic brand that uses ductile iron for their stock roller cams....

-D.idiot

Thats true, I was thinking of the guy that was still trying to recover from ponying up and converting to a roller setup since it can be a sizeable investment. Retaining the OEM production style OP drive gear is just another way to keep it from snowballing into more of an expense he/she might not be planning to do at the time of the conversion. I had forgotten about the newer ductile roller cams, and it is food for thought as you said and a good point. Technology is our friend and the possibilites of what the high tech industry can provide to those willing to explore it are unlimited.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

You have to remember that OEM rollers are hydraulic. Much lower spring pressures and less beating on the lobes.

I am not sure if you could get enough oil down a hydraulic style SL6 valve train to support hydraulic rollers or not.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Can you expand on this a little bit more? I thought you could use the roller lifters from a v8? I'm just interested in how all this works even if we never implement this.

To me it would make the most sense to cut on our lathe and have OCG finish the profiles, and skip the OP gears. Than you would run an EDIS (something been looking at trying with the Megasquirt) and an oil pump ran off the serpentine??

So would roller lifters and rocker arms make this a complete trick roller setup?

Since Doc offers a bronze OP drive gear that would be perfect for use with a roller cam, I felt most potential roller cam users would see this a way to be able to retain the conventional distributor and oil pump without any further unexpected costs and have a smoother transition and less of an expensive change over from flat tappet to roller. Of course eliminating the OP gear from the cam blank will effectively reduce the headache of finding a cam person to hob the gear and a slightly lesser cost to finish the cam, but at the added cost of having to purchase the EDIS setup and a remote wet/dry sump oil pump and all other related components to fab that to completion. So does the $50 or so bucks you save by eliminating the gear hobbing justify the several hundred you will have to spend because you did bypass that stage of the machining operation.

I was thinking if a person wanted to use a hydraulic roller setup, they could drill an oil passage thru the lifter galley and tie into an existing oil passage somewhere to supply it with the needed oil to pump the lifters....just a thought. I think the .904 diameter V8 hydraulic/solid roller lifters will work in these slants. Its not uncommon in other engines for builders to redirect oil where it wasn't originally plumbed, and make it go where you need it. I could do a lot of R&D if I just had a block.....

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

That's what is currently on the table, LA/RB block mech lifters are no problem...but clearances in the lifter valley are a bit tight for the capture bar...and the capture bar needs to be be somewhat adjustable since the lifter bores aren't 100% uniform centerline to centerline...(so some of the high end rollers that are "staked" or permanenetly captured will not work so well...)

There would be a bit of fun drilling the feed holes this as the oil galley is offset a bit from the point where the mopar side oiling lifters would work...There has been some discussion about using AMC .904 lifters since they oil a bit differently...but that's another discussion.

One other fun obstacle is keeping the cam in place...typically we can fabricate a cam button and stiffen the timing cover up a bit by welding in a reinforcer to it...but that shoves the cam back against the block plug at the rear of the block, which might also become problematic...

-D.Idiot

Don't AMC lifters oil through the pushrod like a hydraulic Slant?

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

I think so...but we'd have to use a smith brothers 3/8 pushrod with a large delivery hole and probably figure out how to get more oil pressure at the rocker arms....hopefully those 1981-1987 stamped arms can take that kind of abuse.

-D.Idiot

Primary difference with AMC lifters is that they have an oil feed to the pushrod. It's not top-down oiling like hydraulic lifter slants or modern hemis.

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Joshua

I dont think this is gonna work. I hope it does but ive worked with a guy on a billet roller cam and the problem was the length which would cause warping from heat.

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Slant 6 engines

Its has been done and currently being done with most every other American inline 6 engine. The Ford 240/300, Chevy 250/292 and even the 1950's era GMC Jimmy engines for Bonneville, drag racing and circle track. This isn't a new concept or idea by any means, inline 6's have used roller cams for over 40 years in every form of racing that there is. Most of them are actually a little longer than the Slant 6 is, and they also have just 4 bearing support journals as well.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!