Hydra rev kit?

[McssGmachine]

Is anybody running this on there setup? Give me the good,bad,and the ugly!

[camcojb]

Is anybody running this on there setup? Give me the good,bad,and the ugly!

The good: works great, extends the rpm range of the engine, assuming the camshaft supports the additional rpm.

The bad: price to those on a limited budget.

The ugly: installing it with the heads in place. A small engine valve spring compressor helps a lot.

Jody

[Jay Hilliard]

I was running one. Now switching to solid roller. They do help control lifter bounce since hydraulic roller lifters are on the heavy side. On my application, they extended theh rpm range by maybe 100-200 rpms. The biggest was it helped control bounce, which in effect does help rpms.

[ProTouring442]

I didn't know they were made... I have a Crane Roller-Hydraulic and I would love to rune a rev-kit. Who makes them?

Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"

[camcojb]

I didn't know they were made... I have a Crane Roller-Hydraulic and I would love to rune a rev-kit. Who makes them?

Shiny Side Up!
Bill
'72 442 "Inamorata"

http://www.airflowresearch.com/pages/hydra_rev.htm

Jody

[Blown353]

I run a Hydra-rev, I picked up a few hundred RPM out of it (nothing else in the combo changed) but nothing exciting.

Installation is fairly easy *if* your heads are smooth under the valley area and have a center support. If not, you may not be able to run the kit at all or you will have to rig up custom bracing like I had to do with my Dart Pro-1's as they don't have a center support and the plate was flexing. I like to either press-in pins or drill and tap the heads and bolt (use red loctite) the spring plates to the head to keep the plates from "walking" around. If you rely on spring tension alone to hold them in place they'll walk around and may rub the pushrods.

The high-RPM problems with HR cams are caused by two things: the lifters themselves are quite heavy which means you need stiff valvesprings to keep them in line. Unfortunately you can't run tons of valvespring pressure to control the lifter on the lobes because you'll collapse the hydraulic portion. That's where the Hydra-Rev comes in, they apply a bit more pressure to the lifter only (helping to keep them on the cam) while not collapsing the lifter via the pushrod.

You'll see more gains from going to the new beehive springs and Ti retainers/keepers as they save a LOT of weight compared to standard dual-spring setups; best option with an HR is to run the rev-kit and beehives.

Another tip to possibly save you big bucks in the future: make sure you buy the cam ground on a billet core and have the pressed-on iron distributor gear installed (so you can run a long wearing iron gear on the distributor), and run a genuine GM melonized distributor gear. DO NOT RUN THE MSD MELONIZED GEAR. I've had two MSD melonized gears go bad on me with Comp HR's; one was 1/2 eaten up in about 7000 miles and the other completely wore through in 2200 miles which left me stranded and destroyed all the bearings. The reason for the billet core is once you start running decent valvespring pressure plus the pressure from the rev-kit you may very well experience lobe failure of a cast HR cam, the billet cam will not have this problem. Also buy a distributor with a slip-collar so you can properly set the distributor height (which control the gear mesh between the cam gear and the distributor gear.)

I have a set of Comp beehives and Ti keepers/retainers on the shelf in the garage waiting to be installed (along with a new billet HR cam, same grind); I've had them for months now just haven't got around to pulling the engine.

The best piece of advice here is not to go in with false pretenses. Never expect to make a high-winder out of a hydraulic roller. Using beehives and a hydra-rev I would plan on 6500 *max*, and that's an estimate depending on how agressive the lobes are-- you may start floating at 6000, and floating will KILL the springs and lifters in a heartbeat.

If you feel the need to spin higher then either go solid flat tappet or solid roller, and then you have cans of worms to deal with both.

A rev-kit is a MUST HAVE on a street solid roller IMO, as it keeps the rollers in contact with the cam at all times, preventing the wheel from "skidding" on the cam when on the base circle-- this in turn increases lifter life. Also, getting an SR to live and be reliable on the street is dicey, best bet is to buy GOOD rollers with true pressurized pin oiling-- namely Isky Red Zones and even then yank them out every 7500-10K miles for inspection.

Troy

[Y-TRY]

I have an unused Comp Cams rev-kit sitting here that I'll sell to you for $50.

[McssGmachine]

Email sent :thumbsup:

[Blown353]

I have an unused Comp Cams rev-kit sitting here that I'll sell to you for $50.

Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade but a SR rev kit won't work on HR's-- at least if you buy a Comp rev kit and have Comp HR lifters. Been there, done that-- the lifter buttons are totally wrong. Had to send the Comp kit back and get a Hydra-Rev.

Troy

[McssGmachine]

Thanks for the info guys! :thumbsup:

Hey Troy, I use Comp cam HR's BTW.

[Y-TRY]

Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade but a SR rev kit won't work on HR's-- at least if you buy a Comp rev kit and have Comp HR lifters. Been there, done that-- the lifter buttons are totally wrong. Had to send the Comp kit back and get a Hydra-Rev.

Troy

Yep, that's why mine is sitting here in a box and not in my lifter valley! The Comp kit requires "full-round" lifters. :rolleyes:

Pretty much every cam company makes a kit. HydraRev is just AFR's brand name for it.

With the engine apart, it can be pretty inexpensive insurance against valve float. I wouldn't expect tons of power or whatever. But it's good to have them on high-winding engines. Any kind of roller lifter is heavy and risk launching off the nose of the cam. Roundy-round guys use them alot. I'd have one in if I had bought the right one at that point of my build-up. But it didn;t fit and I was like "eh" and put it aside.