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I was looking at the Blood Angels Chapter Ancients Formation which allows for 3 dreadnoughts that can basically either fire all their weapons twice or make double their number attacks. I thought that I might run 3 furioso dreads w/ frag cannons so that one turn they can fire 4 frag cannon shots and 2 heavy flamer shots each. Figured this would be awesome against orks or nids. Bu I don't like spending 105pts on drop pods, so I'm thinking of running them on foot. The frag cannon has 24" range so it can still do damage from range. It has AV13 so is quite sturdy. Would the 3 of them do well walking up a board against a nid/ork army if the rest of my force was 15DC in a crusader w/boltguns and 10 sternguard in a rhino and Cassor the Damned, a whirlwind and a baal pred w/ dakka loadout as well as 10 man tack squad w/ lots of flamers in a rhino?

I figure that since the orks/nids are running at me, and I'm running at the orks/nids it won't be as dangerous because we both just want to be in combat.

To be honest, running Dreadnoughts on foot is not worth it. Those 105pts you spend on droppods are always worth it. The reason being that Dreadnoughts who are 24'' away are not scary, while one crashing down next to your units in a droppod is.
Placing your Dreadnoughts near or on your enemies line in turn one, makes them a huge focus point. Which will divert your opponents firepower from units that do have to walk/fly/ride across the map to get near your opponent. And if your dreadnought survives the oncoming onslaught, then it can inflict a world of pain upon any unit it can charge in your next turn.
So in my opinion dreads are always best used when used in combination with droppods.

But against a nid or orc army then you could have them walk on foot towards them, but I do not think you get the highest mileage out of them that way. Against those armies you would want to use the dreads to weaken and distract the larger groups of enemies while your heavy artillery takes down the big mechs or monstrous creatures, which they do best when used with a droppod.

Also, unless it got FAQed and I didn't see it, the Frag Cannon in the Blood Angels codex only fires the template version of the rounds (Assault 2 Rending Template) and does not have access to the solid shot version from the Deathwatch Codex. I dearly wish it did, as it would give even more incentive to run a Furioso in a Pod since you could drop pod it next to a tank and essentially get two lascannon shots from the Frag Cannon in addition to having it able to fire the templates into infantry. In other words: Dayum.

As for foot slogging them, I can get away with foot slogging a Librarian Dreadnought because, with the proper psychic powers (Fulimation Tree) it can cover ground pretty quickly. A Death Company dread or Furioso Dread I would pod in, however. In my view the extra points needed for 3x pods is worth it since you can drop in and drop that much firepower into the enemy.

Just my opinion on that. Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

Also if you're not feeling the Drop Pod vibe you can get a Stormraven Gunship and have the Dreadnought get carried in by a flyer - not quite as effective as the Drop Pod, but stick some Terminators or Sternguard or something in it and it's a great unit.