So I was at our engine builders a couple weeks ago dyno'ing our tour modified motor. While helping him remove the motor from the dyno we got to talking about my LT1 and my plans on doing a 383 forged street/strip bottom end, parts, prices ect.

During this convo I asked if, in his opinion, solid rollers are a good idea for an 80% street motor with the normal idling and such and if they were reliable for this. His answer was "I actually prefer them in almost everything over hydraulic rollers and are very reliable with the newer designs".

He then goes on to tell me that in the motors he builds for the local NASCAR driving school cars, he uses a Hydraulic Roller cam with solid roller lifters on it and 400lb open pressure springs. He said this is the most reliable setup he has found for these cars, which take a beating on them for multiple seasons and pretty high RPM without a rebuild. This guy is very well known in the drag community, holds several records of his own and builds some crazy turbo motors along with dirt oval stuff and some asphalt stuff.

So now my question...My valve train has been noisy and tappy from the day I did my cam swap. I have a XE 224/230, Comp R lifters (circa 2005), hardened push rods, the crane 1.6 RR's that come with the HOT cam kit (SA) and PAC-1518 springs (130ish seat, 330ish open)...

Does anyone think #1 by swapping solid rollers would it cut down on the ticky type writter sound of my valve train and, #2 would I benefit any performance from this by having less drag on the base circle of the cam by having some lash in the valves and possibly more duration under .050" and better lifter control.

Yes I have tried countless different ways of lashing my current setup. Hot, Cold, 1/8th turn preload all the way to 1/2 turn preload. Still noisy...Our tour mod motor runs solid rollers, crower shaft mounts, a .750"+ lift cam @.016" lash and its quieter than my street setup, which drives me nuts.

Any thoughts or discussion on this would be appreciated. I kind of think it would be cool to try.

 

#1 if your worried about ticky... SR is NOT for you lol. the lash isnt so much for reduced drag as it is to compensate for thermal expansion of the materials as the engine warms up. however i have seen a few people do it but solid lifters are so damn expensive.

 

I dont see $349.00 as expensive for solid rollers compared to $650.00 for the Lunati/Morel high end lifters.

 

Like I said, our mod motor properly lashed has that slight tick to it. Barely noticeable. It is a distinct difference than a noisy tappy valvetrain.

To the previous post, I understand lash is for thermal expansion, but on an aluminum head/ iron block motor, the lash actually grows with temperature. Our race motor gains about .008" from cold to 190 degrees. I also know of all aluminum sprint car guys that have preload in the valves when cold in order to have the right lash hot because the all aluminum gains so much.

I was just looking for some expanded thought on the solid rollers on a hydraulic cam and if anyone has done it with first hand experience. I would assume that with the same valve springs, solid rollers on the same cam would have a higher RPM ceiling because of the reduced weight, if the heads would flow it.

 

I'd run a solid lifter in an LS in heartbeat. so easy to get in there and set the lash with the way the valve covers are.

Many years ago I had a solid flat tappet BB olds….ugh ten bolts per cover and oil everywhere.

 

limited travel hydraulic lifters

 

Years ago I was checking out a Chet Herbert catalog and noticed that their 'solid' lifter cams had the same #s as the hydraulic ones. I called and they said yes, they were the same cams. I asked what the advantage of running solid lifters was, considering you're giving up lift, and got a reply of "Not much." I was not impressed in a positive way, most solid cams of the day had more lift for a given duration than the hydraulics.

Just as good cams set the valve on the seat gently, solid lifter cams are designed with ramps that take up the lash gently before lifting the valve at a high rate. I'd think without these it'd be rough on parts - probably depends a lot on cam choice.

Does "preload" mean the valves are off the seats? Might make for interesting starting...

 

Well I'd say you would certainly have reliability issues if you only gonna spend 350 bux on solid lifters. Quality ones are double that.

 

40 Chev - Yea by preload i mean tighter than zero lash and thanks for your thoughts.

Blown06 - Comp's endure X solids with the oil band are just over $400 and are reliable. The premium Crane's are the only ones that come to mind that are $700+. Our "sub quality" solids in our Tour motor push huge triple springs at .750" lift at 8000rpms with no reliability issues. 3500+ laps last year.

My main concern was the cold starts, periods of idling and steady cruise speeds that occur in daily driving with solids. Not if a $350 lifter could handle RPM reliably, Comps lifters have already proved that to me.

 

Okay man. Give it hell.

Actually I didn't realize you were only talking .750 lift numbers. While decent, they aren't the kind of numbers that would definitely warrant a set of hippo's.