Non-billet roller cam

[L78steve]

Iv'e use a couple cast roller street cams with no problems so far.
I did not know the OEM uses only billet. And Eric has a point.

[novadude]

Ford has been using cast SADI (selectively austempered ductile iron) cam cores since the 1980s on roller applications with no problems. Millions of 5.0L engines in Mustangs, Explorers, etc went hundreds of thousands of miles with SADI cams. GM used these in a lot of OE applications too.

As long as over the nose spring load isn't excessive, and the profile isn't too aggressive, there shouldn't be any issues. Running a cast core eliminates the need for bronze tipped FP pushrods and bronze distributor gears. Been running a SADi core Howards roller in my '69 350 engine for ~5000 miles and 3 seasons. No issues, and I sleep well at night.

[x33rs]

About 17-18 years ago I had a cast core custom ground hydraulic roller in a BBC here, and it did what is pictured above after about 2 years of street driving. It was somewhat of an aggressive grind (242/248 @ .050 and around .650 lift.) I probably had about 15,000 miles on it.

I switched to a billet core after that, similar grind, and it's been going fine for about 15 years now. I use a melonized gear on it, still looks brand new. Not a huge fan of the bronze gears.

Tony Bischoff built dads engine 3 years ago, billet solid roller and used a bronze gear. I pulled it out and checked it last year and it had some pretty good wear on it already after ~5,000 miles. I replaced it with melonized, still looking good.

Just food for thought.