flat tappet vs roller cam

[Hank70SS]

Originally Posted by SS Shaun

ok that brings up another question then! my car will never see the road during the winter. so you are telling me that with my flat tappet cam i have to go out there and start the car every few days?

Absolutely not! Flat tappet, roller, whatever, if you're not going to drive it then leave it alone. You've seen the white exhaust clouds in the winter, that's moisture. It's a by product of combustion. It takes a long time to heat up the engine and exhaust enough to dry that moisture. You can't do it just letting the car idle, you need to drive it and put a load on it to heat up the block, oil and exhaust.

I had a 396 with a comp 280H cam, fairly aggressive. Never touched the car over the winter and never had a problem. Use a good oil, maybe throw a battery maintainer on it and cover it up. It'll be fine until spring. Even the battery will be fine with no maintainer if it's fully charged. No computers on these cars so nothing to drain the battery. A lead/acid battery will hold it's charge for months, like 5 -6 months, in cold weather. It takes more amps to start in cold weather but heat kills batteries, not cold and heat will cause it to lose it's charge a lot faster than cold.