Roller cam bearings

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by 1347

Junior Johnson was running roller bearings in a stock Chevrolet block in 74. I saw a stock open tunnel block at Smokey Yunicks shop from the 70s or 80s also with roller cam bearings. Maybe Jenkins saw harmonics, but the Nascar guys were cheatin with them before with success.

They were not cheating with them; it was common knowledge at the time.

The closed tunnel blocks started to show up after Mike Ege, the head of the NASCAR engine shops for Robert Yates Racing and years later, for Roger Penske Racing, built the first closed cam tunnel Ford engine block while working for Yates. Mike later incorporated the same feature on the Chevy and Mopar NASCAR engine blocks while working for Penske.