Can You Use Solid Roller Lifters With A Hydraulic Cam? If So Will Stock Push Rods Work? If So Do You Adjust The Valves The Same Way You Do With Hydraulic Lifters? Sick

 

about the roller lifters, i know you cannot use flat tappet lifters with a hydraulic cam, but as for regular roller lifters im not sure. as for pushrods, i would check with the company you plan on getting the parts from and see, because there is a different way the pushrods connect to the lifters on some setups.

here is a website/guide to adjust different valve lash, its for an LT1 350, but i think is similar to most sbc 350 and 305 valvetrain, it is under the link that is at the top of the LT1 forums also http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#adjust_valves

 

You can get away with it in a pinch, but the valve train gets pretty noisy because the take up ramp on the hydraulic cam is too abrupt for a solid lifter. The valve clearance is adjusted with a feeler gauge and has to be set to predefined amount. But since you are using the wrong lifters for the cam, you will have to improvise. My suggestion, and this is a rough approximation, with the engine cold, and the piston at TDC & both valves closed, set the rockers to leave 0.020" clearance, between rockers and valve stem. This will make sure that the engine can run. Now let the engine warm up good & set the valve clearance again. The valve clearance should have become smaller due to expansion. This time around set the clearance to 0.010" on the exahust, and 0.006" on the intake. The exhaust is set looser because the exhaust components expand more. Do not take up all the slack as you would with an hydraulic lifter, as the valves will remain partially open and eventually burn. There are two types of roller lifters used in the small block. One is the factory set up which uses lifter guide plates and lifters with flats along the sides to fit the plates. The other is the after market type, where the lifters are connected together in pairs. In my experience, the factory set up is more reliable.

If you are using rockers with roller tips, you have to make sure the pushrods are the right lenght. After the valve clearance has been set up the first time, rotate the engine slowly by hand and observe the roller tip as it moves across the valve stem. The movement should center about the middle of the valve stem and range about 1/16" on either side of center. If the rod is too long it will move the contact point towards the pushrod, if it is too short it will move the contact point away from the pushrod. The whole idea is to keep the tip of the rocker from falling off the edge of the valve stem, which can destroy your engine, and to lessen wear on the valve stem guides. The easiest way to get the proper push rod lenght is tp buy two adjustable push rods and adjust the leght for the proper geometry, and have a set of regular push rods made up to that size, but 0.010" shorter to allow for expansion.

My question now is, why do you want to do this? It won't give you any more power. It will allow the engine to rev higher because the lifters won't pump up, but the hydraulic cam is not going to make much power at those RPM. So if you want to make the engine a rev monster, get a cam designed for solid lifters and making power at 8000 RPM. Just make sure everything is in perfect balance, and that the rotating assembly can take it.

 

My Reasoning For Looking Into Rollers Is ... Which I Hadn't Had Time To Look At It Throughly ... Going To This Weekend ... Anyways ... I Seem to Be Having To Adjust My Valves Way To Often. Everytime I Inspect It After Going To The Strip One Rocker or The Other Seems To Have Loosened A Bit. Is This Normal? I Was Getting Worried That I'm Having Excessive Cam Wear. Last Week I Installed The Tunnel Ram. I Was In A Bit Of A Time Crunch And I Can't Remember For Sure If My Engine Was Warm Or Not But, I Noticed A Pretty Loose Rocker. So I Did A Quick Adjust and Slapped The Cover Back On. I Noticed I Aquired A Misfire At A Steady High Rev. You Couldn't Feel It While Accelerating But Only At A Steady Rev And I'm Wondering If I May Have That Rocker Too Tight Now. I Try Not To Work On It When I'm In A Hurry Cause I Tend To Forget Tidbits Of Info. I Usually Adjust The Valves ( With A Hot Motor ) By Spinning The Pushrod And Tightening. When I Feel The Slightest Resistance I Tighten One Half Turn. I Guess It Only Makes Since That When The Motor Cools They Would Be A Little Looser. I'm Probably Just Worrying Too Much. Gonna Get My Fingers Dirty This Weekend And Try Try To Solve The Mystery Misfire. I Gutted It Last Sunday. Never Realized How Much Worthless Crap They Pack Into The Interior Of A Car. I Must Have Lost Another 150 Pounds. My Electric Water Pump Comes In Tomorrow I Hope. Still Haven't Made My Mind Up About The Alternator Yet. If I Do Keep It I Guess I'm Gonna Have To Get Another Aftermarket Bracket And Mount It Elsewhere. Really liked The Idea Of No Pulleys Tho. Sick

 

I don't know what you are using to maintain the valve adjustment but if you are using the single nut per rocker that the factory uses, it is possible that the threads have loosened up enough that they will not hold their adjustment. I had this happen to me once and I went and bought new nuts at the Chevrolet dealer and everything was fine from then on.

 

Kewl ... I Was Debating Whether That May Be The Problem. They Do Seem Easier To Turn Than A Rocker Nut Should Be. I'll Probably Replace Them Just To Rule That Out. Thanks. Sick