[shermanator2]

First I would like to thank 68hotbird and everyone else for providing some very good information here and on the other two threads on the same subject. I am very intrigued by the possibility of using factory designed roller lifters in a Pontiac. Not because of the cost, which is not high on my priority list, but because of the reliability. All of the aftermarket companies, hobbyists, and racers cannot put the resources into developing reliability that GM can. I personally have had a very nice engine taken out of service by a link bar pin failure on a lifter from one of the top cam companies.

I would like to comment on lobe lift and its effect on oil band location. Any optimally designed cam will have the nose of the cam at the same height (radius from cam shaft centerline) regardless of lobe lift. The difference between a high lift cam and a low lift cam will be in the radius of the base circle, not the radius of the nose. The nose radius should be just less than the radius of the cam bearing journals (just allowing the cam to be installed down the tunnel). Sure, you can design a cam with a smaller base circle and smaller nose radius, but in doing so you are either increasing side loading on the lifter or reducing the ramp rate, or both.

My point in bringing this up is that we should not be considering the lobe lift when determining if the oil band or oil hole relief notch come out of the top of the lifter bore. All proper cams should be the same and essentially the oil band should be inside the lifter bore when the roller is at the radius of the cam journal. If we had a concern about the oil band coming out the bottom or covering up the oil feed hole while on the base circle, then we would need to talk about lobe lift. That seems to not be the case here, or at least has not been brought up yet.