Upgrade Your Small Block to a Roller Cam with a Summit Racing™ Gen 1 Small Block Chevy Roller Camshaft Conversion Kit

Beginning in 1986, Chevrolet upgraded the Gen 1 small block Chevy to a one-piece rear main seal and also modified the block to use a one-piece rear main seal and accept a hydraulic roller cam. Not all engines were fitted with a roller cam from the factory, however. If you have a 1986 and later 350 with a flat tappet cam, you can rectify that issue with our Summit Racing™ Gen 1 Small Block Chevy Roller Camshaft Conversion Parts Combo. You can also check out how easy the swap is in Jeff Smith’s ‘Easy Roller on a Budget’ story on our OnAllCylinders blog.

The engine in question is a 1990 350 with Vortec iron heads and a flat tappet cam rated at 214 degrees of duration @ 0.050 inch and .444/.466 inches of lift. The cam was replaced with a Summit Racing™ Pro SBC Camshaft. Rated at 218/227 degrees duration @.050 inch and .525/.520 inches of lift, it offers a big increase in lift that improves power output. If you have an automatic transmission, a 2,500 RPM or higher stall torque converter is recommended but not required.

The Summit Racing™ Roller Lifter Installation Kit allows the use of less-expensive OEM replacement roller lifters. It comes with the OEM-style lifter dog bones that slip over the squared portion of the lifters to position the rollers on the cam lobes; a spring steel ‘spider’ dog bone/lifter retainer; and a 3.620 inch wide camshaft retainer plate for 1991-2000 engines. If you have an earlier engine you will need the narrower 3.294 inch Chevrolet Performance cam retainer plate.

The Summit Racing™ Performance LS7 Hydraulic Lifters are designed for both GM LS and Gen I small block engines. They offer increased performance at high RPMs.

The Cloyes True Roller timing set is designed for factory-style roller cams. It has three keyways—4 degrees retarded, 4 degrees advanced, and normal—to adjust cam timing. The Chevrolet Performance cam plate retainer bolts are required for use with a performance-style timing set like the Cloyes; regular hex-head quarter inch bolt heads will cause the cam gear to hit the plate.

The combo includes a set of Summit Racing™ Pro LS LS6-style beehive springs to accommodate the Pro SBC roller cam’s additional lift. The springs offer more valve guide seal clearance and use smaller diameter retainers to improve valvetrain stability at higher engine speeds. The springs were installed with a set of COMP Cams steel valve retainers and seven-degree valve locks.

Vortec iron heads use guided rocker arms to properly align the rocker arm over the valve. The factory rockers don’t provide sufficient slot travel over .550 inch of lift, so they were replaced with a set of 1.5 ratio Summit Racing™ Aluminum Rocker Arms that provide necessary slot travel. They have needle-bearing fulcrums and roller tips to reduce valvetrain friction.
Using an iron distributor gear with a steel core camshaft like the Summit Racing Pro SBC will quickly damage the cam’s distributor drive gear. The combo’s Summit Racing™ Distributor Gear has a ‘melonized’ heat treatment that creates a surface that is compatible with steel, cast iron, and ductile iron camshafts.

The same issue crops up when using a mechanical fuel pump. Using a regular fuel pump pushrod will damage a steel camshaft, so we included a COMP Cams bronze-tipped fuel pump pushrod that won’t cause damage.

Rounding out the combo is a set of Summit Racing™ Chromoly Pushrods. The one-piece pushrods are heat-treated for durability and have .080 inch thick walls to prevent deflection at higher RPMs.

CHECK OUT THE SUMMIT RACING GEN 1 SMALL BLOCK CHEVY ROLLER CAM CONVERSION KIT