The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop hydraulic lifters for 235

My 51 3100 has a passenger car 235 with hydraulic lifters. A few years ago when I was working on the engine I saw that these lifters and cam were not available so I just ran the worn parts with no trouble. Is there any change in the availability of these items or are they still not manufactured? I would probably put new ones in if I could buy quality parts. Is there any problem running a worn cam and lifters as long as they don't stick and the lash has been adjusted? ( lifters have been freed up and cleaned)
Thanks,
Howard

Howard, I was always taught to check first the bottom face of the lifter. If it bows outward, this means the lifter will rotate as the engine runs. This is good as it exposes a newly oiled patch of metal. If it bows inward, you need to replace it (or them). If you turn one lifter upside down and set another on top of it, the one on top should rock around a bit. This assumes the lifters are not worn to the point of leaking down. Without removing the cam you probably can't tell much, but if it is still running well, I'd be inclined to leave it alone.

Jon,
It was about three years ago I had the lifters out and I remember they were no longer convex on the bottom. That is why I was thinking of replacing them even though the engine runs fine.

Thanks, Howard

I just installed a set of brand new lifters in the 261 we built up for John's big pickup. They were flat-bottomed. Now, these were the milk can shaped solid lifters, so the same check might not apply to hydraulics. A concave-bottom lifter is definitely worn out, and there will be corresponding damage to the cam lobe it runs on. Lifters rotate because the bore they run in is very slightly off-center to the cam lobe, not necessarily because of the shape of the bottom of the lifter.

I've checked new hydraulic lifters for small block V8'a, and they do have a slight radius on the bottom. I'm not sure if that also applies to stovebolt hydraulics. If your lifters can be adjusted so they run quiet and there's no obvious loss of lift at the valve, let that sleeping dog lie!
Jerry

Rockauto has a listing for Melling and Sealed power. hydraulic lifters. Might be worth a check.

[img]https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chevrolet,1957,bel+air,3.8l+235cid+l6,1326147,engine,valve+lifter,5548[/img]

Thanks Jerry. I never knew they were slightly off-center but that does make sense. I have a brand new set of hydraulic lifters (bought circa 1980) for the 235 and they are convex by about 8 thousands. I've kept them along with a brand new cam bought at the same time and will use them someday. Also when I rebuilt the 235 I'm using now I used the cam and lifters from another 235 I had rebuilt in 1977 because they still seemed fine and those were only slightly less convex than the brand new ones (may have had 10,000 miles total on them). The lifters I'm using now were sold under the Sealed Power name and the new ones and cam were more expensive.

I have no idea if anyone in the world is still doing this (and I'm certain Jerry can give some thoughts), but when I was in high school, the parts house in our village could send lifters off to the machine shop in El Paso who did all their work and that shop would re-crown them as long as they had just worn to the point of being flat. The man who owned the parts house said he had seen the machine they used and that it was fascinating. I never had this done, but friends of mine did and said the lifter bottoms came back like new. It was about $1 less than buying a new lifter. One of the mechanics in town told me he did it any time he had to do a valve job and said he considered it an insurance policy. This was many moons ago...

As long as the surface hardening of a lifter base isn't compromised I don't see a problem with re-radiusing a used lifter. When I lap the mating faces of the bolt and receiver with diamond lapping compound on a Mauser rifle for full contact while building a custom rifle, I can take a maximum of about .005" off both faces before I get into soft metal.

Now you've got me thinking- - - -by using a collet chuck and a fixture to hold the lifter, I'll bet I could fabricate a radius-grinding fixture that would use most of the length of the 48" ways on my lathe and a tool post grinder to recut the radius on lifters. Another project in the works!
Jerry

Jerry I bet you could do that. From the description the parts house owner gave me, I got the idea this thing wasn't large but was pretty automated. Sounded like the operator lined the lifters up in a slot, turned it on and walked away. Then the machine fed them in, resurfaced them and fed them into another slot on the other side. It didn't cost much back then but having said that a six pack of beer was about $1.25 and a really good hamburger was 50 cents, so money did different things for you.

Yep, I remember buying a burger, fries, and a Coke for 50 cents in the mid-1950's, and the burger wasn't a slider- - - - -full sized, with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. A slice of cheese was a luxury- - - -it added a nickel to the price!
Jerry

Cassie, I have a near new hydraulic cam out of a 1954 235 with near new timing gear. I also have a set of cleaned hydraulic lifters. PM me if you want anything I have from near Cincinnati.

Jerry,
The camshaft did have wear on it also but I don't know if it was through the hardening. Good to know the lifters probably were still rotating since the wear was even. Occasionally there is a tapping noise on a cold start up but I guess that is normal. It does not last long.

Thanks to all,
Howard

I may be interested but right now I am not sure the 54 and 56 have the same cam. This is a confusing issue. Does anyone know for sure? I guess I will have to do more research and then PM you.

Thanks, Howard

Powerglide for the 1956 on my end.

Howard

1954 was a change over year for cams.
Some had the early small journal steel cams, and some had large journal cast cams.
The best way to tell which cam you have is by looking at the distributor drive gear on it.
Check out my blog post to tell the difference.

The issue with the hydraulic lifters currently sold for the 235 motors is that they seem to have a relatively high rate of failure. They collapse prematurely. One of my best friends runs a machine shop. They rebuilt a 235 for a customer and used new hydraulic lifters. Motor broke in just fine. Had a couple collapse within 20 miles. Replaced the offending lifters, darn if some of the new lifters collapsed and one or two more of the existing lifters. He replaced all of them, failure again. By the time he called me, he was ready to give up. I gave him a set of nos gm and that solved the issue.

The lesson here is if you want to run hydraulics and you have the ability to hunt down some nos gm or USA replacements (sealed power, Elgin, trw, Johnson) from 20 or better years ago, that is probably the route you want to go to get the best results.

The mechanical lifters, both early milk bottle style, and the later style do not suffer from this problem so new replacements are fine to use.

Mike and Dave,
Thanks for the info. Even though it is against my nature I think I will do what Jerry said,let sleeping dogs lie. (at least for now)

Howard