Since I lost a lobe on my flat tappet cam I decided I needed to switch to a roller cam and lifters. My block is a 1978 302 block. Just about everything I read said that to go roller cam you either need to buy expensive link bar lifters or use stock ford parts from a 1985 to 1996 302/5.0 that came with a roller cam from the factory and then get a custom reduced base circle cam. There were a few people who said that they were able to use factory parts including the cam and everything worked fine. Since my old motor was a 5.0 with TFS Stage 1 roller cam, I already had all the parts to try this conversion. I would only be out $12.00 for gaskets if it didn't work. So I spent an afternoon doing the cam swap.
The big problem with this 5.0 roller cam conversion is that the stock roller lifters are much taller than the original lifters that came in pre 1985 302's. This is supposed to cause the oil ports on the lifters to come out of the lifter bores and you lose all of your oil pressure. That is why you supposedly need a reduced base circle cam.
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| Oil ports on 5.0 roller lifters. |
The first thing I did was to drill my block for the spider tray while using a vacuum to hopefully suck up any metal shavings. I then greased a tap to catch those shavings, so hopefully no harm will be done to the motor from any stray metal shavings. After I got the holes taken care of I placed the lifters and dogbones in place. I turned the motor over slowly by hand and watched to make sure the oil ports in the 5.0 roller lifters were not exposed. To my surprise the oil ports were no where to be seen. So I got all the other parts together and finished installing my cheap roller cam conversion in my non roller block.
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| 1978 302 block with stock 5.0 spider tray, dogbones, and roller lifters. |
I have had the Falcon back on the road for about 2 months now with my cheap roller cam conversion. I am sure this will not work with higher lift cams, but I do know it worked with my TFS Stage 1 cam.
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| TFS Stage 1 cam in early block with stock roller lifters |
Awesome! I have a '66 Mustang that I want to keep mild, and have a stock roller cam from a '90 Lincoln sitting around that I wanted to use in it, but was afraid to after reading that it wouldn't work without expensive link bar lifters. Thanks! You just saved me a ton of cash.
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