Morel lifters
 

Im looking to get a set of lifters for my LS solid roller build that is build swapped into my BMW M3. I've been looking at Morel lifters and wanted to get some experiences/suggestions on which lifters I should purchase. This is going in a street driven car that Im eventually looking to road race. Looking to hopefully wind the engine out close to 8k rpm.

Specs on engine are:
ERL 434 w/ Swain-tech gold coat pistons
Ported LS7 heads W/ PAC springs and Ferrea exhaust valves
T&D shaft mounted rockers
Cam Motion cam 252/264
Ported FAST 102
Manton pushrods

The choices I have been looking at are:

Morel 5452 these seem to be base lifters, but if it gets the job done
Morel 5425 these seem better bc they are oil pressure fed
Morel 6130 these are bushed lifters that seem to be more sensitive to the type/cleanliness of oil

Thanks for the feedback.

Morel 5425 UltraPro were highly suggested for my build. Talk to Martin@Tick or Chris Straub@Straub Technologies.

Will do. Does anybody have any expirence with the other two lifters I listed?

You might get a better deal on the lifters from Cam Motion sense you will be ordering the camshaft from them. A packaged deal.

Ya, Kip was out of the ultra pros when I bought my cam and rockers. I'm mainly interested to know are the 5252s up to the task or if the 6130s are overkill?

I run the Iskendariann Bushed EZ Rollers. The 6130s are similar and IMO would not be overkill.

I think Martin at Tick has good deals on the lifters.

I've looked at Iskys as well, from the little that I've read online they are particular to the cleanliness of oil. What has your experience been? I was told that I should run the 375RHM.

I'm using the Morel 5425 with my Tick / Cam Motion solid roller. They're on global back order with just about every vendor / dealer out there. Bullet Racing ended up having them after I got a refund from Tick

^Ya, better check on that, cause it took almost two months to get my 5425's dropped shipped to my door.

Do you guys think a bushed lifter is worth more hassle/money than needle bearing lifters.

Are you talking about a lifter with a roller bushing instead of roller bearings, or bushing the lifter bore to run bigger diameter or keyway lifters?

A lifter with a roller bushing.

I'm stilling sitting on a brand new set of Morel #5425 lifters. Bought last year for another motor build, but this motor is still running, lol. If you really looking for a set, i would sell them

Nice! here we go, first bid gets it.lol:burn:

LOL,yep Doesn't matter to me, keeping or selling them :)

pm sent

Shit, you're sitting on a 5425 gold mine right now BOZZ haha

You know its funny becouse I was talking about them awhile back and people thought I was wrong about the part number becouse tooley didn't sell them, lol they are sweet looking for sure, very nice

They are one of the best SR lifters for stock.842" diameter lifter bore. Perfect for some street use since it has force-fed oil pressure oiling.

I would avoid Morel, I bought a set of Morel 5274 LS Pro Series lifters and they failed almost immediately and Morel has no warranty once installed, nothing at all (THESE LIFTERS ARE SOLD AS IS WITH NO TYPE OF WARRNTY OR EXCHANGE OFFERED ONCE THEY'RE INSTALLED).

Had to buy a second set of lifters, went with Lunati Hydraulic 72532 and they have a 90 day warranty but so far they've been fine.

I have not had them long, so no comment on how durable yet, but I keep my oil clean. Isky has been around a long time and they make excellent products. My experience to date is they work well. Also, that is the same part number I have.

How exact did your lifters fail?

You have a set of pushrods but no lifters :huh:

Still, looking forward to the results. Who ported and machined your LS7 heads for T&D rockers?

Fraser

Hi Millenium,

I was just about to purchase a set of Morel 6132 mechanical lifters for my 400ci big bore/short stroke LS engine when I noticed your post.

It would be greatly appreciated knowing exactly what failed and some sort of basic analysis of the failure mode. Do you also have some photo's you could share because maybe there are some suitably qualified people on this forum, like Kip at Cam Motion etc that could help pin point the problem you had.

Did you call John Callies? He seems like a very approachable and helpful guy with an awful lot of knowledge, least in my opinion.

Cheers,

Mark

No pushrods in hand just paid for already. Once I measure for correct length I just need to let Tony know. I had my heads ported by Tony Mamo and my heads machined locally here in Honolulu.

Something in the body failed, the wheel(s) were good and felt smooth, the lifter bore was good and the outer body was pristine but the lifter wouldn't stay pumped up. It allowed too much lash on a intake valve when running which then mushroomed the Ti intake valve.

The shop and I looked at the lifter, externally it looked fine but my guess is that something was wrong in the piston/inner cylinder and allowed it to leak down too fast. Yes, we called Morel/Callies and were told no warranty. After Morel said no warranty, we took it apart and looked at it but there was nothing obvious.

Initially I was just going to replace the bad pair (link bar models) and move on but since you have to pull the heads to replace lifters I saw no need to risk the other 7 pair being OK to save $700 just to have to possibly spend it and more down the road if they did fail.

We put in a new Ti Valve and the new Lunati lifters with the same push rods and the same LS7 trunnion (replaced the one over the bad lifter) upgraded rockers and the valvetrain is dead quiet (LSL lobes) and 1700 miles later, no issues.

I wont use morel again simply for the warranty aspect, I understand that parts fail, I have a problem with $700 lifters failing and there being no re-course.

Good, I would go with the thickest wall Manton offers for 3/8" pushrod. .175"? RIP Terry Manton.

:cheers:

Well its a good thing that OP is going solid lifters

Solid FTW. And I had the same issue with one of my stock LS7 lifters during my first HCI build. Pulled it apart to swap parts, pulled the stock lifters out and stored them in a small bucket of fresh oil, stabbed the new cam, put the lifters back in and went to measure for PR length, and for somehow one of the lifters failed.

Anyway, what Manton series are you going with Chux?

I'll be getting series 5 3/8 x .120

Im not sure what series but they will be 3/8 x .95. Do you think I should get the thicker wall .120?

That's a question for Manton. They suggested series 5 3/8 x 0.95 at first, and once I started talking to them more and telling them what my goals were and what I wanted, i.e., to assemble the most stable valvetrain I could afford, then they suggested the .120 wall 3/8 series 5.

They asked what my valvetrain consisted of, rocker brand / material / type, spring pressures, valve materials, stuff like that.

Also, what I've gotten from talking to many cam and valvetrain experts and companies, you want to put the biggest, stiffest pushrod you have room for and can afford, generally speaking.

Roger that. I'll look into it. How's your build coming along?

I was looking into some 7/16 push rods but haven't called Manton yet. Going with a 8xx lift at 29x duration, was looking to spin around the 8500 rpm range. By the way, sold my set of 5425 so no more pm please

Goin pretty good. Hittin the home stretch now. Just need to order headers and pushrods, and a few other small misc. things

5425 off the market? Who'd you hear that from and what other info do you have about it? Updated design, new part number.....?

Sorry about that, No they are still on the market but just sold mine that's all. I will correct my post

Oh ok haha

Thanks Millenium,

Good to hear that there was no obvious mechanical failure with your Morel's, as I am not using a hydraulic lifter, at least I don't have to worry about leak-down etc.

As I am also going with the bushed rollers, I am also eliminating the potential needle roller failure.

Cheers,

Mark.

Yeah, Id have done the CHE bushed rockers vs the BTR trunnion kit had I seen them in time. Still may go to a HS adjustable LS7 RR but I'll wait and see if I go to a LLSR 1st. As to the Lifters, like I said, no warranty is not ok for me. I'd see what Lunati has for a solid roller or what Cam Motion recommends. This stuff is too expensive to buy twice and manuf not stand behind the product.

I have a set of Morel 5206 lifters that are noisy as hell at startup. They quiet down considerably after a couple of minutes and perform just fine but, the loudness at startup would preclude me from recommending the 5206. That said, the OP is running solids so hydraulic woes are irrelevant.

As far as Lunati lifters, I've read on more than one site that they are actually made by Morel......

Morel manufactures the Lunati lifters you replaced your Morels with.

Classic.

Hi Martin,

Excuse my mirth, but that is priceless!

Having recently been 'shot down in flames' on who makes who's lifters I didn't want to say what you have just said, so thank you for confirming what I had also heard.

Cheers,

Mark.

They make about 4-5 other brands also.

There are differences though. The material they make their cheaper lifters out of is the same material they use for their off brand versions. The upper level Morel lifters are made out of a much better quality material.

In general, whether it matters or not, you get what you pay for.

Thanks guys for the replies in regards to lifters. I purchased M Bozz's set. I'm excited to go down this solid roller path.

I sent you a tracking number, thanks

MORELS:burn:

I'm aware of that and was when I initially bought the morels, just curious why 1 has a warranty and one doesn't.

Hi M.

Its called "Marketing" and the brand owners of Lunati obviously believe that they can sell more product by offering a warranty, however, warranty's are usually not worth much more than the paper they are written on.

Cheers,

Mark.

Haven't had any issues with my drop-in Morel 4737 solids (7k+ rpm).

Good, as those are the ones I will be using.

Morel supplies the lunati lifters.

Tim

I run the Morels 5452 on my street car and so far no issues what so ever.

I've got 3/8 x 0.095 from Manton and they don't budge. Reallly no need to go heavier. Its the diameter that makes them strong.

I understand, and didn't mean to "burn" you by making the comment I did. I didn't know if you were aware.