I am curious to know if you can take a 351w and allow it to be a roller. I have read somewhere that its possible or thought I have. Anyone have any info on this?
I'm sure there's already a lengthy topic about this (or at least there was a couple years ago, maybe it was among the deleted stuff).
Yes, there are two ways to go about it. Tap into the valley and install a spider tray and grind enough excess material out of the corners by the lifters in order to fit the "dogbones." Or you can buy the kits from Crane or Comp Cams which have two lifters connected to each other on arms.
The main thing to remember is to get a proper camshaft when you make the switch.
I went with the vertical link lifters from ford. They will set you back a good $400 but I like them, and they can be transplanted from block to block without machining them if you have issues with your block down the road, and they also allow you to run a standard base circle cam as opposed to the reduced base circle ones if you went with a spider and dogbone assembly.
Just remember that when you drill the holes for the spider, you are drilling toward the cam bearings. Not a problem if you drill the holes before installing the cam bearings.
There is a procedure to bore out the lifter bores and have taller inserts installed to hold the taller roller lifters, plus you would have to drill and tap the spider holes as pointed out above.
You could also just get the later 351W block that is setup for a roller cam.