I'm considering putting a 272 cam in my TPI 350... just to give it a little extra oomph... along with a 52mm throttle body, etc. My question is, mine is an 87 model motor, and has a roller cam. I'm not much of an engine man... but a friend of mine said that if I put the cam & lifters in, and just changed the pushrods that everything should work fine. Is this true?

Also... what issues am I going to have with this affecting my chip/computer?

Any issues installing a 90 shot of NOS?

Thanks in advance guys!

Taz

I'm not expert so I'll go ahead and offer my advice :flipoff2: You really need to keep the low end vacumme up. the advantages of the factory roller are tremendous over any flat cam. stay with the roller and call you cam manuf. of choice for a upgrade recommendation that will work with your combo. you should consider modifying your chip. start at http://www.tunercat.com

Another beautiful thing about the roller cam is you can change the cam, yet keep the existing roller lifters. You should be able to swap cams cheaper than if you bought a cam, lifters, and pushrods. The roller has less drag, too. That equals more power. Free power from reducing friction, what a wonderful thing.:D

i think what everyone is trying to say is "buy a hydraulic roller cam doofy and keep your existing roller lifters".. not only will u get the benefits of roller lifters but the price should be the same or cheaper.. cause you need nothing but a camshaft.. with a flat tappet hydraulic cam you'll need the cam, 16 lifters, and probably 16 pushrods.. I'm a mathematician, but I'll let you add it up.. :flipoff2:

I thought there was some shit like you need to a FI friendly cam otherwise the knock sensor/vacuum and that stuff throws off the computer.

Charlo

what you'll need to go to a falt tappet hyd. cam:

cam, 16 lifters, 16 longer pushrods, bearings, programed chip so you won't cook your motor.

what you'll lose: torque, lots of it going from a roller cam to a flat tappet cam.

what you'll need to change to a more aggressive grind roller cam:
cam, bearings, programed chip for the computer.

my brother built a smallblock with a tpi. we have been through this. we finally figured out that you just have to have a programmed chip to mathc you motor. you cna get this done relatively cheaply.dont be sucked in by the "super chip" or the "performance chip." get one programmed to match your cam.

-Scott

efi engines need cams ground on 114*-116* lobe centers to keep low rpm vaccume up.