The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Hydraulic Lifters and Camshafts

Interesting article in the 12 Port News (Inliners International). The article is about the hydraulic lifters of today being much better than those that were produced years ago. Still not as good as solids for full blown race applications, but some are using them for that purpose. Lots of details mentioned along with websites for several camshaft and lifter manufacturers.

John

Hydraulic lifters in a stovebolt engine are a solution in search of a problem unless it's too difficult to get access to the rocker arms to do a valve adjustment, like a cabover, for instance.
Jerry

Conceptually I would agree with that article, but getting good quality hydraulic lifters that function out of the box has been a real challenge the last few years.

Even the "good" brands are shipping a lot of DOA parts.

Four camshaft mfg’s were listed, but Rhoads was the only lifter brand mentioned in the article. Maybe Rhoads are better than their competition?

John

Worth a look. I don't think I have any personal experience with them. Is the article available online somewhere for review?

I have used Roades lifter on several engine build with great success. They prime easily and provide great vacuum, I haven't had a lifter failure yet.

The only Rhoades lifters I'm familiar with are the ones that have a rapid leakdown rate at low speed. That serves to allow a pretty radical cam to be used and still maintain pretty good manifold vacuum and a smoother idle due to less than complete valve duration and lift at idle and low speed. Once the oil flow to the lifters increases as the engine speed goes up, the full range of the cam lobes comes into play. They're definitely not for everyday street use. It might be possible that Rhoades makes a conventional hydraulic lifter, but I'm not familiar with them.
Jerry

Jerry, I got a copy of the article and it describes that feature of the Rhodes lifters. It calls them "variable lift and duration" lifters.

Interesting idea, but I agree that I don't think I would want them in a street engine.

Overall, interesting read.

Let’s be clear. New lifters for the 235/261 chevy are not better than the older USA made lifters. Not by a long shot. The problem with the new manufactured hydraulic lifters for 56-62 235 motors is with the design, spring and metallurgy. They simply will not do the job with any kind of reliability. Collapsing, sometimes within minutes of starting a motor for the first time, bad machining, bad crown, poor oil control design. They are not a copy of the original and do not perform as well either.

This has been going on for quite a few years now. Real Gm lifters are made from superior materials and engineering. In the 47 years I have been playing with the 235 and 261 chevy motor, I have never had a cam/lifter failure when using GM lifters and follow the appropriate pre lube and brake in procedures to the letter. A pretty close second is USA made lifters. But these lifters have to actually be made in the USA and generally need to be like 30 years or more old.

So while I read that article with great interest, it is not applicable to a Stovebolt lifter.

Solve the problem the easy way- - - -use AMC/MOPAR/Ford hydraulic lifters. There are plenty of USA made new old stock lifters of that series. They're all the same diameter and height, and it's easy to adapt them to a stovebolt block.
Jerry

Oh, Jerry, please do tell!

I sleeve the stovebolt lifter bores down a few thousandths and finish the diameter with a piloted chucking reamer and a button wheel cylinder hone to get the correct sliding fit. The MOPAR/AMC/Ford engines all use the same part number lifters, and they're plentiful and dirt cheap. The lower end of the stovebolt pushrod needs to be adapted to a 5/16" diameter ball end to mate with the lifter. That's done by cutting the original end off the stovebolt pushrod, pressing a sleeve over the cutoff end, and pressing a short section of a ball end pushrod into the sleeve. Schneider cams is about to regrind some steel core 216 cams for MOPAR roller lifters for me, to go into my Frankenstein engine with roller rockers and roller lifters.
Jerry