I have a stock 1968 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with the 455 V8.

it had a 2 jet carb with severe running issues (stalls on slants/when I hit the brakes) while I was on Craigslist looking for a 4bbl intake/qjet, I found a guy with a jetboat motor with less than an hour of runtime, parting it out.

the engine had a cracked head from the rebuild shop, all the roller valvetrain components show no wear.

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I bought all this for $100.

I could have gotten the heads too, but I didn't want to take them home on my bike, if anyone is in the San Antonio area and wants them (Ga code, stripped down, one good, one cracked but repairable) send me a message.

anyways, today I pulled the intake off of the motor, and found that everything is in surprisingly good shape, mechanically this motor is tip top...the running issues seem to be 100% on the carb.

there are a few pics of the motor stripped down in this thread.

anyways, I have a few questions-
I want this motor to be rather agressive, but still streetable, car will be a driver, and see towing (4k+ lbs) I need to run AC, vacuum brakes, and my auto trans/converter (I have no engine hoist to pull the motor to change the converter) I would like a roller cam, but I don't know if budget would allow, can you help suggest a good cam?

I hear good things about an "RV cam" but I don't want to just throw something in there without consulting the experts

valves-
the valves in the head look like they are in very good condition, do I need to replace the valves when I put the roller rockers on? I don't want to have to put a newer thicker head gasket on if I don't have to...plus I have no hoist or air tools to deal with the manifolds/45 lb heads.

I don't yet have an intake, I'm trying to track down an unknown offy manifold amesolds has, but again I'll take suggestions.

for a carb, I'm pretty much set on a qjet, its what I had in my last 455 olds, and once it was set up right, I could ignore it for 5k miles easily...but if anyone has any ideas, I'll listen with an open mind.

thanks for your time.

 

I'll keep it simple.
An Edelbrock Performer is almost always a good choice.
That's a partial roller valvetrain. A full roller valvetrain would be a roller cam/lifters and full roller rockers.
"RV" cam is a very broad term.

When you're ready give me a shout, maybe I can help.

 

edelbrock performer...intake?

I can't find the ad for the cam I was looking at last night, but I need something that gives power from idle-5000 or so, with good pull all the way through, I don't need anything nuts.

if I could find something roller, slightly more aggressive than stock, and not a third of what I paid for the whole car, that would be perfect, but unfortunately that's just not going to happen...I'm probably going to just have to pay for an ebay roller cam, or if I can find a decent flat tappet cam in the locally I'll do that.

is there an easy way to tell if the rockers I have are 1.6:1?
I know later 307s were roller motors, worst case could I "borrow" a cam/lifter set out of one of those, and use that until I can buy just the cam I want? it looks like the lifters are the expensive part. would the 307 roller cam be even comparable to a stock 455 cam? at least temporarily. (running smoother with comparable power)

my last car had a smog 455 in it and had no problem towing what I needed it to, so I'm not too worried about this high compression motor doing the same work, but it is something to keep in mind.

 

Can't put the 307 roller stuff in a 455 without mods. Plus they use different lifter sizes as well. You'll have to go in another direction