Roller lifters: Hyd or Mech?
 

i have a dilemma. i need to put new lifters in my car. what name, type, and why fo each one to use. basically i want to run mechanical rollers for durability, but i dont know if they are good for longevity. do i use a roller cam? or is their a roller mech. cam?

i figured that if some reason the hyd. lifter fails, then i would have to replace it. and that can be a pain in the asz. what i want to do to my car for now, is use the Track Heat intake with the 70mm TB with the stuff i have below. i dont have money for heads right now, if i did, trust me they would be in! also what size Mass should i use? i will be using my stock 19's for awhile and i dont see me getting 24's anytime soon.

my plans for the car is street driven and an occasional trip to the track. i will be setting my car up for SCCA.

i dont mind the noise of the lifters and also down the road if i get sick with the injection i will go carb.

how often do you have to adjust lash on the mech.? if i can use mech. for everyday as if they are hyd. then i will use them.

thanks, James

mechanical rollers are very durable. Comp makes some very good lifters for your car. I forget the part number. Summit has them. They do make a mechancial roller cam to use with solid lifters. Adjusting the lash depends on how hard you run your car. I usually adjusted mine every other pass. If you don't run your car hard that much you won't have to adjust them near as much as you would if you ran it hard constantly.

I've been using a set of modified hyd rollers that I had Sherman Racing Products do for me... they rebuild the lifter to act essentially like a solid, while maintaing enough plunger travel to be considered legal for the NHRA stock classes. I have over 100 passes shifting at 7000 and crossing the 1320 around 7200-7300rpms with no problems. And I do not have to run back through the lash adjustments after every pass.... like I've noticed some who run a solid lifter cam do at the dragstrip. Let me know if you're interested then I can give you some more info on them... one of the upgrades, for example, is that they replaced the flimsy wire that retains the internals of the lifter with a real snap ring. ;) They can either do a set you send them, or you can buy a set already done from them...

Does SRP have a website? If not what is their phone number & address?

Sherman Racing Products
3245 Hwy. 1 South
P. O. Box 1326
Donaldsville, LA 70346

J. Allen (225) 474-8515
Cliff (225) 473-4923

jallensherman@aol.com

I had their website addy, but cannot find it right now... it's an AOL hometown based site if I recall correctly, and not an easy url to remember ;)

Hope this helps!

I run a solid roller in my 79 (all comp cams valvetrain). If you run a stud girdle like I do it will stay withen specs allot longer. I have to adjust mine about twice a season and I shift at 6800.
You can buy a street solid roller setup that will require little maintenance.

informative topic

srv1 ....i can't help thinking that mechanical lifters are a little overkill for your application though.........although theoryeticly mechanical lifters will last longer ,you will have to adjust lash more often

if your planing on using pedistool rockers then definatly don't go with mech lifters ...to much of a pain to adjust ........even with adjustable rockers ,its still a pain to adjust them (efi car +you have to remove upper to get valve covers off)

i'd recommend using hydrolic .....even with stock replacements they'll still last years and you won't have to adjust them (mine have over 200,000 on them and they still work ).....the stock hydrolics should last well over a hundred thousand miles easy

seems like the only benifit to mech is the rpm potential ,hydrolic lifters are pron to failure at high rpms and they limit your rpm potential(they floate at high rpms)

with your combo(6200 rpms -stock limiter) i'd say go with stock replacment roller lifters

can't help much with the mass air meter.....mine,s still speed density
i think you'll be allright with the 19s for now but if your getting a cam or heads down the line you'll need to go bigger eventually

what ever
 

http://www.lunaticams.com/ this is what you want :cool:

well i see Lunati has the one with the snap ring, but it doesnt mention if it is roller or not. but i want something that is streetable and it will last and can bring it to 6 grand without any problems. besides Lunati and Sherman, who else?

Comp Cams has a p/n for a set of Ford hyd. roller lifters that are claimed to be good to 6500+ rpms... but no part available for the number, LOL. They've had this p/n for several years now, but still no part... :p

You might want to look into those... :rolleyes: Bawahahahahahhaaa!!!!!!! I'm sooo funny! :cool:

Another thing... the Renegade boys use hyd. roller cams and make very impressive HP#'s while running low 9's / high 8's ;)

Unless you plan on running SSO, you shouldn't need a solid roller lifter... that is, of course, my opinion on the matter. There is PLENTY of power to be had with a hyd. roller cam

With all the roller lifted vehicles we have here I dare say there are close to 400,000 miles out there on hydraulic rollers and nary a hiccup in the bunch. Much of this has been at or near redline, (two teenage boys with really BIG feet) Think of it this way, mechanical rollers are going to need adjustment every few months depending on how hard you run it. when you take into consideration how much gobbledigook you have to remove to get at them I would wonder if it is worth it. Mechanicals will let you run bigger numbers and higher redline but is the rest of the engine up to that level yet.
As far as how often, I've had to do it on previous cars as often as every 6 months to one occasion where a 300 mile trip running in the twilight zone opened up all of them in about 4 hours

high rpms were kinda the point i was going for

hydrolics are fine and still very functional up to 6,000 rpms......unless your future plans for the moter are for 7,000 rpms or higher ,then go with hydrolics

in order to build a moter that'll spin at 7,000 plus there's other issues you'll have to deal with aside from the lifters .....the moters balance ,the ingnition system ,valve springs ,ect

i have a friend who recently rebuilt his 92 moter(306 now)....he reused his origanal hydrolic rollers that had 130,000 miles on them ,when his moter was built he had it balaced to 7,000 rpms and he just recently got a custom chip with a higher rev .......he hasn't had any problems with them yet and he's been redlining it to 6,800 rpms

my hydrolic roller lifters have over 200,000 miles on them ,and my car doesn't have any problem finding the 6,200 rpm rev limiter it has .......hell... i had to buy a shift light so i don't hit the rev limiter by accident agian