But what are the drawbacks of a hydraulic roller cams set-up? As far as I can see, only one thing the heavy, hydraulic roller lifters.Ĭlevelands have huge ports in relation to the CID of the motor and heavy, big valves what they need to maximize the excellent cylinder heads is RPMs. For the same given duration rollers make more power. More area under the lobe means the valves are open longer and can therefore cram more fuel and air into a chamber, and get the spent gases out quicker, for the same given lift compared to non-roller cams. The roller cam lobes, in essence, have more area under the curve, or should we say, "more area under the lobe" from a purely physical standpoint. OK, we know that roller based cams are great because the roller tipped design allows for more aggressively shaped lobes that once the valves get opened to a high lift level they then keep them there for a much longer time compared to the more pointed or peaked flat tappet lobes. I will give my reasoning and opinion and then perhaps others will chime in with their reasoning and opinions. 050 lift for the solid cam due to the gapping the valves. But when it comes to the other 2, namely solid flat tappet cams and hydraulic roller cams, which do you think makes more power, and why? And I mean comparably sized cams taking into consideration 8-10 degrees less duration. After solid rollers we know that hydraulic flat tappet cams tend to have the least amount of power potential. I have run a couple solid rollers in Clevelands and they are great for power and RPM potential, but after broken studs, cam pins and rollers I said No more for my mostly street vehicle. But not everyone wants to run a solid roller. We all know that solid roller camshafts have the most power creating potential versus hydraulic rollers, solid flat tappet, and hydraulic flat tappet cams. OK, this is a question for all of you camshaft theoreticians regarding Clevelands.