Going Roller on my 340!! Solid or Hydraulic??? Pro's and Con's

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FDNY340

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Gents
Looking for pros and cons on Hydraulic vs. Solid roller set up.
340 W2 with Strip Dominator
8" converter with brake
456 gears in a Duster
Cam will be mid 500s lift not selected yet.
750 double pump

Looking for street strip 10 second car

I know solid roller comes with some major oil mods so is going with solid worth the extra work and $$$???
As always thanks for the advice
Mike
 
What are you looking to make for power?

I think for roller you're going to want to at least check out the MRL Performance lifters. www.mrlperformance.com . I'm not sure that with those you actually need to modify the lifter bores/oiling.

He built my engine, I have a pretty basic 9.7:1 340 with a hydraulic roller cam and basically stock edelbrock heads and it made 470hp.
 
:coffee2:

I'm making this decision also. Very similar build. Gonna listen in on this one.
 
My vote is for solid roller!

I have one in my 360. It's .580 lift and 245@.050. Car has about 10.5:1 compression with eddy heads, no idea about the power but with 4:10 is hauls. The throttle response is insane, really happy with it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm running MRL solid lifters, and I strongly recommend them, they dropped right into the block with ZERO modification to anything and they are pressure oiled.

You need to have your valve train setup really good especially with the increased spring pressures. I'm running comp ultra pro magnum rocker arms with .180 wall pushrods. I have about 3k miles on the motor with that cam/lifters and the lash hasn't changed one bit.

Really the only downsides are having to check the lash every once and a while, but it take very little time to do that. The other is they may not last as long, but with pressure oiled lifters like The MRLs I'm not worried about longevity.
 
solid roller all the way do not waste your money on hydraulic roller.
 
My vote is for solid roller!

I have one in my 360. It's .580 lift and 245@.050. Car has about 10.5:1 compression with eddy heads, no idea about the power but with 4:10 is hauls. The throttle response is insane, really happy with it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm running MRL solid lifters, and I strongly recommend them, they dropped right into the block with ZERO modification to anything and they are pressure oiled.

You need to have your valve train setup really good especially with the increased spring pressures. I'm running comp ultra pro magnum rocker arms with .180 wall pushrods. I have about 3k miles on the motor with that cam/lifters and the lash hasn't changed one bit.

Really the only downsides are having to check the lash every once and a while, but it take very little time to do that. The other is they may not last as long, but with pressure oiled lifters like The MRLs I'm not worried about longevity.



Thanks. I was already eyeing the MRL lifters. Dart Vader you did oiling mods?? If yes can you elaborate? Did you Sleve lifters?

Thanks again guys.
 
MRL lifters with the offset pushrod seat should work real well with the W-2 heads, also the pushrod tunnel in the head may have to be opened up to use a 3/8 dia. pushrod.
 
Gents
Looking for pros and cons on Hydraulic vs. Solid roller set up.
340 W2 with Strip Dominator
8" converter with brake
456 gears in a Duster
Cam will be mid 500s lift not selected yet.
750 double pump

Looking for street strip 10 second car

I know solid roller comes with some major oil mods so is going with solid worth the extra work and $$$???
As always thanks for the advice
Mike



Use a solid roller and up the lift. Way up. Net nothing less that .650 as you could use a solid lifter with .500 lift. besides, you are wasting the port. I net .600 with Pcar heads.
 
Thanks. I was already eyeing the MRL lifters. Dart Vader you did oiling mods?? If yes can you elaborate? Did you Sleve lifters?

Thanks again guys.

Yeah they are nice lifters, and I didn't do any oil mods. I know some people say to bush the lifter bores, but I didn't do that, or anything else. I just dropped them in, setup the valve train and have been driving ever since.

Another downside/positive depending on how you look at it is their noise. Naturally they create a lot of valve train noise, especially with a lot of roller rockers. But personally I really like the sound!
 
I'd do a Hyd. Roller in a roller 360/5.9 if it was a daily/weekend driver to go anywhere any time, near or far away.
Solid all the way there after.
 
I'm gonna jump in and show my ignorance....:D


What are the advantages and disadvantages with solid vs hyd ?
What is the big determining factor?

Jeff


:burnout:
 
Read this thread for your 340:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=335882

It discusses the issues with the chamfers in the tops of the lifter bores on the 340s' and the problems with the oiling grooves in the roller lifters losing oil above these chamfer tops, along with some possible solutions. The positive roller commentors here in this thread look to be talking about 360's, except for goldduster318 who is running .530" lift in a 340 as opposed to .580" lift for Dartvader.

If I understand it right, bushing the lifter bores is one method to get around this chamfer problem with high lift. Bushing the lifter bores typically costs many hundreds of $$.
 
Would a 340 w/solid roller not be able to go far in a weekend driver? For instance a 1 week out of state cruise round trip of 1600 miles? IF I ever finish mine, I think I'd like to go see some out of state car friends with it.
Still in sheet metal stages, haven't even looked at engine options yet.
 
Would a 340 w/solid roller not be able to go far in a weekend driver? For instance a 1 week out of state cruise round trip of 1600 miles? IF I ever finish mine, I think I'd like to go see some out of state car friends with it.
Still in sheet metal stages, haven't even looked at engine options yet.
IMHO, the first and most important order of business is to decide what you want to do with the car, then figure out the engine build to match that. Rollers are good for higher lift while keeping durations lower (i.e., a more aggressive cam profile) and so fit a certain performance profile quite well: lotsa HP at higher RPM's. A pure cruiser does not need that level of lift and HP and RPM's, etc. And going to those levels of lift involves higher spring rates which gets into other vavletrain upgrades, like better rockers, etc., and the roller cams and lifters that are being discussed here cost 3-4 times a hydraulic flat tappet cam and lifters.

Here is a good read for a good 'n easy cruiser type engine:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=307012
 
Solid roller! Our Pro plus lifters have 3 small ports oiling those rollers and they will survive for the long haul. HR lifters do not have this pressure fed oiling and survive due to the much lower spring pressures.
 
I posted this same thing asking, hyd vs solid roller
You loose a lot of top end with hydraulic, they are all done right around 6000 rpm and some said they had failure, They would not pump back up after sitting.
Solid roller- adjusting them almost every body said after engine is all broken in. adjusting them once a year and most said only one slightly out if any at all.
I ended up going with MRL lifters. Just about to start my motor, lift is around 585. Street car, 340, 379 crank 10.2 W2 4 speed 4.10. I might go with less gear.
 
Gents
Looking for pros and cons on Hydraulic vs. Solid roller set up.
340 W2 with Strip Dominator
8" converter with brake
456 gears in a Duster
Cam will be mid 500s lift not selected yet.
750 double pump

Looking for street strip 10 second car

I know solid roller comes with some major oil mods so is going with solid worth the extra work and $$$???
As always thanks for the advice
Mike


If your goal is 10's with a 340, I would go solid roller. I have a small solid roller in my 410, but I didn't need any special oil mods....probably depends on what lifters you buy. Good luck.
 
SSG what are your thoughts?? Same build?

My build looks like this so far:

1970 340 block, .060 over
4" arm from BPE
Callies compstar h-beams
Race-tech forged pistons
W2 race heads fully ported
1.6 HS rollers
Mopar dual plane intake
850 demon

Going into 72 Duster, 4spd, 3.91SG, 28" tire

I've been seriously leaning towards the solid roller (with mrl lifters) in order to utilize the full potential of the W2s. BUT, this is going to be primarily a street car with only the occasional drag strip run, so the hydro roller may be a better choice to minimize maintenance, noise, and wear caused by higher spring pressures with the solid stick. As of now I'm going solid.
I will be tubing the block and installing a crossover line in the valley but will not bush the lifter bores.

As far as OP' s setup, I'd recommend the solid roller to maximize the potential of the heads in order to get into the 10's. Guessing that he will do more serious racing if he's trying to hit those kinds of numbers.
 
My new build has drop in Comp solid rollers, they feature pressure oiling to the axle and offset tie bars.

[ame]http://www.kcenginepro.com/downloads/COMP%20Endure-X%20Solid%20Roller%20Lifters%20with%20Inboard%20Link%20Bars%20for%20Chryslers%20NPR.pdf[/ame]

SSG, Why a dual plane intake on a 4" motor?
 
My new build has drop in Comp solid rollers, they feature pressure oiling to the axle and offset tie bars.

http://www.kcenginepro.com/download... with Inboard Link Bars for Chryslers NPR.pdf

SSG, Why a dual plane intake on a 4" motor?

Mostly because I have it already! lol. Pretty sure I will be satisfied with the power it will make even with the manifold restriction. The dual plane paired with the right cam should provide enough vacuum for my power brakes also. Would definitely go single plane should decide to do any racing in the future.
 
Gents
Looking for pros and cons on Hydraulic vs. Solid roller set up.
340 W2 with Strip Dominator
8" converter with brake
456 gears in a Duster
Cam will be mid 500s lift not selected yet.
750 double pump

Looking for street strip 10 second car

I know solid roller comes with some major oil mods so is going with solid worth the extra work and $$$???
As always thanks for the advice
Mike


I'm assuming this is an 1/8th mile car seeing as it has 4.56 rear and 8" converter. I think you will find that combo to be much more strip than street. With that being said, I would go with the solid roller with at least .585 lift. You're gonna need to really wind it up so the oiling mods are a good idea to make the bottom end live happily.
 
Mostly because I have it already! lol. Pretty sure I will be satisfied with the power it will make even with the manifold restriction. The dual plane paired with the right cam should provide enough vacuum for my power brakes also. Would definitely go single plane should decide to do any racing in the future.


:thumbup:
 
It's been a few years since I've run solid rollers in a small block mopar because my life is all new hemis now. But, I'm starting a 4.125 stroke 340 for my 71 Ruster and am considering solid roller. Back before I got into new hemis and stopped building small blocks one of the main problems with rollers was aluminum/bronze distributor drive gear would wear out in less than 10K miles if you had decent oil pressure. are there cam cores available that work with normal drive gears now. Next question, has anyone run the MRL offset pushrod lifters on a 59 degree block with offset rockers like w2 or w9 heads? I'm curious how this holds up as I've got some heavily worked w9 and lemans w8 heads that I'm aching to make work on the 59 degree block.
 
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