Smallblock efficiency or How to have your cake and eat it too

RAMM said
Let's talk about the camshaft. Here we don't necessarily need to pull WAY back on cam timing and run a little weenie cam. After all we are talking about a musclecar and in this case a 340. I know a solid FT cam up to 250 @ .050" with .560" lift on a 112 LSA can pull down a solid 19MPG if the carb and ignition are spot on. I would use EDM lifters here as well. You cannot beat a solid flat tappet for stone axe reliability /cost/performance. A word about solid rollers here as I know some of you would choose them. I would not as I do not trust them in MY engine that I am going to drive hundreds of KM's in single 3-4hr trips. I will gladly give up the 20-25 hp a roller might give me in exchange for not trashing my engine and leaving me on the side of the road at some point. So. what about hydraulic rollers you say? Well they aren't going to give me the RPM capability of a solid and this 340 will easily make power past their limits of about 6700. Besides I hate hydraulics in a muscle car. J.Rob

On lifters..The thing is, you argue a little ways outside of what we are talking about. Hyd rollers will go the distance. 6700, that is high for them..though they do it...its just that I dont believe that in this 'quest for mileage' one would need to turn that much rpm. Low psi solid roller can hang in there. I put 3hr road trips on mine many times occasional 5-hour trip to Fresno. Quality parts count for sonething. however I'm not going to argue your choice of lifter, that's your right.You're entitled to it and I'm not necessarily against it ,solid flat, i just don't believe theyd be any issue if app'd / spec'd correctly.
Longevity accounts for something too, 6.2 rod helps, ...but not if the rpm eats that up...the wear/friction comes back.
I gotta keep reading the rest, didnt wanna lose my thought. I like where you're going though, but that cam...hmm ...think that will last long? I had a nice [email protected] .573 110...
Fast.