Hydraulic camshafts in general

[68-500]

From here and watching YouTube. Why pick a hydraulic lifter cam, roller or flat tappet? If your assembling the engine near stock specs with stamped rockers I totally understand. But if you’re spending money in stroker cranks, H-beam rods, forged pistons, aluminum heads and adjustable rocker arms why not use a solid lifter? They are why more reliable and consistent. Performance is better with out collapsed lifters or floating valves because of pump-up. Maintenance is very minimal with an adjustment check what maybe 25k? Most of these cars won’t see that in 10 years. And if by chance you start losing a lobe or maybe a roller you can hear it immediately in valve train noise.
So lets hear it guys why hydraulic over solid?

 

[Kern Dog]

Some people grow tired of the solid lifter clatter even if it is slight.
I have 5 classic V8 vehicles out back, only one has a solid lifter cam. Underhood, there is a noticeable click/click/click with it even with the last set to a tight .014/.016 number. The hydraulic cam engines lack that noise. They rumble but hum with none of the valvetrain clatter.
I'm switching to a hydraulic roller this winter. Yeah, less rpm with it but more torque and part throttle street manners. I'm not drag racing, I'm not taking it to Bonneville either.

 

[AR67GTX]

I think 25k might be a little long for valve clearance adjustments, but no doubt with the most miles most of these cars get put on them, it’s probably a once or twice event every decade for most. I have 2 mechanical flat lifter engines but both are higher rpm-potential engines. It seems like I remember reading a lot a few years ago about solid lifter roller cams were living a very short life and lots of failures by 12k miles. This was probably on the Cobra forum and mostly built to the hilt 600 hp FE/427 engines. Engine shops were warning customers away from the solid rollers if I remember right. Not sure if typical for Mopars also though.

 

[Bird 426]

An engine builder that I know says that solid rollers start to get out of round at around 5,000 miles. I just took a solid roller out of my Hemi, it was in there when I bought it, no idea how many miles are on it. There are chatter marks on the lobes. I'm on the street so I went with a hydraulic. Will see how this works out.

 

[j-c-c-62]

I for the last decade plus use only Hyd Rollers, I'm lazy, I hate lifter noise, my motors aren't race motors, moderate rev limits help the motors live, and I don't ever have to worry about wiping a cam. My biggest concern is whether I need or want to upgrade to needless lifters.

 

[Geoff 2]

68,
You said it all....& very well in post #1.