[DeTomaso] POLL: Are you running a Roller Cam in your 351C?

[Garth Rodericks]

My hand is up!

My new 383 stroker Cleveland has a custom roller cam from Ken at Oregon Camshaft (http://www.oregoncamshaft.com/). 
They also provided the steel distributor gear for it.

I plan to assemble the short block this weekend as long as the family's plans don't get in the way of mine.

Cheers!
Garth


--- Original Message ---

Just interested in how many of just the folks on this forum (never  
mind all Pantera owners in general) who are running a roller cam in  
their 351C powered Pantera.

Please raise your hand.

Curious,
Asa Jay

Quoting jderyke at aol.com:

> In a message dated 1/5/10 3:39:46 PM, hemipanter at hemipanter.se writes:
>
>> Hav not been very much talk about "cam walk" on this board....
>>
> Thats likely because it doesn't affect pushrod Fords with their stock front
> cam retainer plate, not used by GM until the LS-series engines copied that
> from Ford as well.  And the modular Fords don't have any such problems. On
> rare occasions a pushrod Ford retainer plate will wear and allow some cam
> movement, as happened a year or so ago to Jorn Olsen in Norway with his hot
> Fontana, but its not generally the problem it is with other brands   
> of engines.
> New hardened plates in several designs- including roller thrust bearing
> types- are still available from Ford.
>
> Plus, cam walk is more of a problem when running roller cams rather than on
> flat-tappet, and roller cams don't seem to be that popular in 351-C street
> cars nowadays. I only know of a few out of hundreds of U.S Panteras.
> Possibly because -A- roller cams are steel and -B- 351-Cs have   
> enough trouble with
> stock distributor drive gears on iron cams. Steel cams require steel gears;
> the prime source of good steel drive gears was Crane, and supplies of gears
> from the new owners of Crane Cams are reportedly irregular. I haven't heard
> much about droves of Cleveland owners looking for roller cams these days.
> Doesn't your Hemi use a front cam retainer to hold things in position? It's
> been too long since I did anything with 426 Hemis.... J Deryke