The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Noisy lifter

No only is it ill advised to swap solids for hydraulic lifters or vise versa for the reasons HRL mentioned but on some truck engines the lifter gallery is not drilled for oil for hydraulic lifters (I don't know which ones but I have one). A hydraulic cam in such an engine will drive you crazy with the racket with either type lifter. The solids can be set at something like 0.002 or maybe 0.003 with acceptable noise but you have to adjust the valves about every other day. The hydraulics simply cannot be made quiet.

I had this happen to me after someone else replaced the cam and timing gear with a stock hydraulic-grind cam using the original solid lifters. The fiber timing gear had broken and I was in a jam and needed someone else to work in the truck, which had been towed in. After putting up with the noise for a couple of months, spring came to the shade tree and I swapped cams for a solid lifter version.