Interesting, I measured that on dry lifters....Ill try again with two fully soaked lifters and see if it looks any different.

Im tempted to just order the +.100 variants and be done with it!

 

i got my lifters and rockers from the same place and they loaned me the right solid lifter to use. it will not make a difference to pump them up the lifter needs oil pressure to be in working order so for it to work the motor would need to be running. stop by the local parts store to see if they sell or loan a lifter.

 

I would soak the lifters and pump the air out of them. That DOES make a difference over dry lifters. Check it then. If there's no difference, I would go with some rods that are .100" longer.

 

I let the lifters soak overnight, I tried again today. The footprint was a little neater but they still appear short. Im going to buy the checking tool soon. No sense in guessing....its not like Ill be driving anytime soon. As cheap as I am, id rather wait the extra time and spend the extra 20 bucks...even though I know Im gonna need .10 over......

 

Good call. Hot rodders have been slapping together valve trains for years and years. While guessing works okay some of the time, it's not the correct way to do it.

 

now do you see why it costs so much money and time to build a high performance engine? im not that old, but i have built a few in my days. usually when it comes to rebuilding a 350 from a fresh block up, it ends up being cheaper in the long run to just buy a crate engine. i was going to build one for myself, but after the costs of everything involved, the time, and all the small stuff that needs to be purchased (like a push rod length checker), it wound up being cheaper to buy a crate engine