Did anybody out there ever use one of the Crower Imperial Roller Journal cams? I used to work with a guy who did a ton of roller engine work including the development of these roller journals. I always wondered if anybody ever used them outside of early NASCAR racing and if so what were the performance gains? Here is an ad for the beasts from the mid '60s...
You can still get roller cam bearings. Comp Cams does the kits for a number of different apllications. They are only really used in extreme endurance motorsport as they are a little on the over-kill side. There is nothing special about the cam. Its prurely replacing a shell bearing for a roller in the block.
I used on way back when and there were no peformance gains that I could see. However, getting the things inserted and lined up so the cam turned freely was another story. In addition, oiling became an issue. Maybe thats why there gone from racing? Beep
I don't believe these were legal in 'Cup cars until the last several years. Roller tappets were definitley a no-no for many years...the engine guys used "mushroom" lifters to gain HP.
Full Roller engines were outlawed in NASCAR racing back when Cale was still running.... Junior Johnson ran this type of stuff early on. One of these days I will post pics of a full roller 427 '***embled' crank they ran a few times. Currently F1 engines are full rollers. Most drag engines run drawn cup needle bearings on the cam journals. Interestingly enough flat-tappets seem to be 'better' for high rpm racing because of their low m***. Recent advancements in surface treatments (DLC) have greatly reduced the friction found in flats while keeping the m*** down. BPerrenot: I wondered about the possibility of bearing alignment problems... it sounds like you experienced them. Did you change your oil system when you dropped the cam in? Can you remember if it made more noise? Does anyone out there still have one of these? Thanks for the input
The Jalopy Journal
