@@vrm86gt weigh your hydro roller lifter and pushrod, weigh your solid roller lifter and pushrod. If you are lighter you can leave the spring pressure the same(assuming your hydro setup had good valve train control). You can also run a little more spring pressure if you want some more rpm ability past peak hp. Keep in mind you need to be right on top of your maintenance, more so than running a 'street lobe' solid roller, as you will be running tighter lash on a lobe with a different lash ramp profile, get it wrong and you will beat up your valve train or not seat valves properly and burn/damage the seats. A dedicated solid cam lobe has a lash ramp designed to control a solid lifter, the ramp has some margin for tighter and looser lash. A hydro lobe can actually be far more agressive at this point in the lift cycle so if you dont have it right you will be wishing you stayed hydro or simply bought the a solid cam with an appropriate lobe profile for your use!
Try needleless roller lifters with EDM pin oiling.... I've been using them for a while and so far, so good. No issues yet. I have more time on them than I did with the needle rollers.
I can listen to you and all of your knowledge endlessly for hours on end. I have been a machinist and builder for a long time and all of your information is just more that I want to accomplish thank you for the great tech information and videos Steve
I remember when i was like 20 and thought I knew everything about engines when i had a 540hp 8valve 4cyl. It must have broke 20 roller rocker tips so i said they were not strong enough so i went to old school sintered slider rockers and then i started snapping tips of the lifters🤣. Dumb me figured that was the next weakest link. Little did I know the springs were beat and the thing was floating the valves like crazy and the rockers were getting slapped. Now i enjoy listening to people that have more experience and are smarter than me so I can absorb some knowledge. 👍
You couldn't hear the valves floating at high RPMs? 🤔 Usually it's pretty easy to hear, and the engine feels like it hits a brick wall. The power just feels like it falls of a cliff.
@@davelowets i was 20 and had no idea what i was doing. Didn’t really have a blueprint to go by because it wasn’t a super popular combo and didn’t have anyone to really guide me. I just kinda figured it out myself the more i worked on it.
Excellent content. I alway liked the hydraulic roller cam profiles better than the solid roller for the street. Best of both worlds running a solid roller lifter on a hydraulic roller cam.
Steve, unless an engine builder is at you level of understanding about how engine's work it appears to me that most everyone can learn from listening to Steve Tech. As a novice in this field I am truly appreciative with the amount of knowledge that you provide and are willing to provide. Thank you 👍
All the knowledge! I built a 383 about 6 or 7 years ago, for my extended cab. I ran a mild lunati voodoo solid roller, around 40,000 miles I had a lot of valve tip wear and added lash caps, when I had almost 60,000 miles on it the airfilter stud fell in the motor, I put new valves, springs, and lifters in it about 2 years ago. It still runs strong
I bought a boat (very cheaply) with a Chevy big block in it that knocked like a jack hammer. When I pulled the motor apart, I found the air filter stud in one of the cylinders. The round stud was beat into a square profile, the piston was wasted, and the crankshaft was actually bent. The connecting rod was surprisingly good yet. 1 used factory piston, had the crank straightened, honed the block, new rings and bearings, and it ran for a champ for many years until I sold it.
Great info! I first ran a solid lifter on a hydraulic cam in 2007 for the same reasons… I tried various lash settings and found the car went quicker and faster with 15 thou cold lash… I could set them to zero cold and as long as it would fire up and had temp on all cylinders it was fairly quiet when warmed up and the lash increased ( LS7 alloy block) which was great for road use with full exhaust. The other thing I really don’t like about keyway bush/lifters (and Steve touched on the difficulty in installing them and retrieving a lifter if one should fail) is the alignment has to be perfect on every single one else catastrophic damage will result… I only use the factory tray or a ti bar deal on LS. Thanks for the video Steve!. Keep them coming 💪
i like how Steve explains things.i watched some David Vizard videos and he explains things like a scientist or professor,hard for the average joe to understand.but i can relate to how Steve explains everything.
I like the fact you are wearing an HPP hoodie they make some beautiful cars especially their new one for NPK Chris Bains car the C7 with your 481X in it with a huge Harts single turbo hanging out in the front grille of the car
I have run Doug Herbert custom letters for the last 15 years they are rebuildable but I have never any problem with them I have read used in several Motors!!
Nice work. A video on pros and cons of the hydraulic rollers cam with solid lifters would be cool. I wanted to do it at one stage and was told it wouldn't work too great. Couldn't work out why it wouldn't work. No that you said it does, I want to know more.
We have a tool for keying the block and running a .904 size lifter in a small block Chevy Dart Block and we don't always use bushings but if we use a bushing it has the holes drilled all the way through like you suggested
Thanks for your page Steve and all the information you provide that you surely don’t have to do. I’ve been building engines for 40 years and I’ve learned so much more watching your content. I’ve been running solid flat tappet camshafts on my performance daily’s due to what I always figured was a “longevity” issue. What are your thoughts on solid roller camshafts for heavy street use? My concern is maintenance, outside of the routine lash checks. How often should one pull the intake to actually check lifters? I do understand that keeping up with the lash checks does shed light on possible problems but the few street builds I’ve done with solid rollers were normally maintained throughout the summer months for cruising season here in Montana, then just pull the intake every winter just to check the lifters themselves…
To be clear: the reason the lifter wants to rotate when it is down on the 'base circle' is because the lifter is not ever perfectly square with the cam, and there is very little pressure on the lifter at that point (none on a solid lifter) to keep it in contact with the lobe and properly aligned. The only pressure on the hydraulic lifter when the valve is closed is supplied by that little spring inside the hydraulic lifter itself.
Has anyone ever offset the roller a tiny bit to provide 'caster trail' to assist in keeping the lifter straight in the bore? Or does it side load the lifter bore too much and cause wear?
Understand issue with racing, heavy valve springs causing lifter roller and roller rocker bearings. On street apps nothing wild just your avg everyday engine. Roller lifters, roller rockers all help with fuel efficiency right. Yes I've had roller lifters fail with solid roller cam car was street driven and cam was very aggressive. This was 351C with solid roller, never had issue yet with smallblock ford with inline head.
Was wondering what your opinion is about Melling hydraulic roller lifters and cams for bbc have you used them and do you like them? Thanks Steve btw great vids and thanks again for the knowledge.
Is the bushing required when you increase the wheel size? Or is it possible to just increase the bore size of the block to match the larger lifter? Is there another purpose for the use of the 2nd lifter bushing you showed us without the key way? Thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us!
There’s a few reasons for the use of the lifter bush If you are needing to correct lifter to block clearance, repair a gauled lifter bore, or re-centre lifter bores square to the lobe then these bushes make those processes possible But one of the biggest advantages is for high rpm use and particularly if using the softer alloy block or conversely the extremely hard material found in something like a Dart pro block, the bronze bush material is much happier working with the tool steel lifter material without the added expense of a dlc lifter set.
I know this is probably beneath this guys knowledge but, i wish someone would do a video talking about todays roller cams/lifters. Ive seen so many people have clattering on startup, noisy valve trane, and lifters that bleed down to fast due to the lobe profiles. Call any of the cam manufacturers and they act like theyve never heard of this problem and never have a solution🤷♂️, even my high dollar custom built 383 has this very issue, builder says it "comes with the territory" of todays roller cams/lifters.
Years ago I built a valve train for a CAT3208 with multistage turbos and alcohol. lifter bodies were 7075 Al. Ran perfect until the crankshaft split. Any thoughts on aluminum lifters, for less inertial weight? I was more concerned about inertia in the rockers. Ideas? THANKS!
Comp Cams sell a lifter bore cutter used to broach in engine block for additional lifter lubrication . What are thoughts on this and oil impregnated bronze lifter bore sleeves ? Thanks a mint Steve !!!
