Look seriously at the small hydraulic roller grinds. Two-teens intake duration at 0.050" valve lift is enough to give your car some voice, will drive around town not much differently than stock, and will have more up top than a flat-tappet cam of similar specs. One other thing - with a HR cam you can pretty much not worry about finding oil with enough ZDDP in it.

I've got a small HR cam in a moderately built 355 SBC in one of my other cars (there's a picture in one of my albums), and I'd never go back to a flat-tappet cam.


Norm

 

Yes there are many advantages to a Hydraulic Roller cam as long as your budget can stand it. Horsepower or torque per dollar will not justify one, but if your budget can stand it, the lowering of friction and oil temperature and the lack of oil considerations that come along with a flat tappet cam are attractive.

 

only advice i really have is toss that ridge reamer in the trash where is belongs!
that is just as bad as lapping a valve!

ask yourself why you use a ridge reamer...
because the old rings get caught? if the ridge is that bad, you don't think you need to bore it?
why are you trying to save the old rings? you should replace them anyways, who cares if they break on the way out?
a ring compressor and lube will be fine to get new rings in without a reamer, so why use it?
the cylinder has bias wear to it and the ride is the only part that is left "true" so do you think the reamer will run a perfect circle when one side is twice as thick?
a boring bar at a shop is centered via the top of the cylinder to make it true, now it can be done other ways but they are allot more effort, so why make a simply job like cleaning .030 out of a block into a bigger job?
last but not least, a headgaset is meant to sit right on the EDGE of the bore, so if you open it up a little too much, now you expose more of the gasket than intended and can lead to issues later on.


as for a hyd roller, i agree with MBD, if you can afford one, do it. they are nice as long as you keep clean oil (NOT QUAKERSTATE that **** is CRAP)

and if you re-use the heads and valves, it is a good idea to have them magnafluxed, and then have the seats cut. make sure the place that cut them doesn't have something like a "normal valve job" and a "race: 3 angle"
some places are shady and will try to get by with less work. 3 angles it the min, if they say less, grab your **** and RUN. another good thing to ask is if they use an interference angel when they cut seats and valves. if they say yes, your in the right spot. an interference valve job is pretty much the best you can do. you can also have the valves back cut for better flow usually.