Hydraulic roller lifter issues???

[b569rr]

View attachment 405847 How common is it to have one go bad? I have about 2500 miles on a zero decked 493 rb 12.5 to 1 street car; Brad penn oil with 3 oil changes.

Took the road runner out yesterday. I got on it probably 5 different times. Taking it 6000 rpm. I my last WOT, I stabbed it, tires broke loose and it hit 6500. Looks like my rev limiter did not kick in but I shifted at 6500 at the track last year for about 10 runs. Well when I come to a stop I hear a hard tick and my rpm, usually 1100 now sits at 1400 at idle. Strange in rpm.

I look at my oil pressure and it's solid at 38 at idle and hot. I coasted it home and figured I'd pull the valve covers and look for a bent pushrod. When I pulled he covers I noticed the intake rocker on cylinder 4 was very sloppy( like 1/8" lash) I run 3/4 turn past zero normally. I pulled the Hughes rockers and pushrods and they all look great. So I figure I kissed a valve and it's hanging open, but an intake valve? I put a straight edge on the valve stems and they are all at the same height.
I tried pushing in the lifters this morning and they are still all solid but notice that the bad lifter has the pushrod sitting a little lower than the others on the base circle.
I know what it is but dammit I don't want to pull the crossram, and the heads just to change out a lifter. I don't think the valley cover with removable window will fit under a cross ram.
so any of you lose a lifter? I'm going to leak check the cylinders before I pull it apart also.

Tom

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

You need to pull the intake only to access the lifters.

 

[dieseldazzle]

This is why I run edm solid lifter.

At the advice of my machinist and Mopar's engines west who have seen multiple failures for no good reason along with still making enough power for my stock block I went solid and edm lifter.

I had morels fail in my 440 with Hughes roller cam.

Had 4 sets of comps fail in 468 and 434 Chevy.

Never had the smallblock fords go south tho.

Not sure whats up maybe the metal maybe I'm an idiot along with my machine shop but there are thousands of recent posts about your same issue .

 

[b569rr]

With my Indy cylinder heads, the heads trap the valley cover. Nice

Wasn't going to mention the brand, but they are Hughes.

 

[vintage chromoly]

Take it apart and put some solid roller lifters in The engine. The quality of hydraulic lifters (even expensive ones) has become suspect over the last several years.

 

[vintage chromoly]

They are branded "Hughes", but I'd bet they are made by someone else.

 

[b569rr]

Take it apart and put some solid roller lifters in The engine. The quality of hydraulic lifters (even expensive ones) has become suspect over the last several years.

I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to call Dave at Hughes on Monday and get some solids. I do not want to deal with this again. I work 50+ a week and time is not my friend.

I also need to stop screwing around and get this thing on the Dyno. My shift points or a guess at best but I swear this thing with pull to the moon.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

I sent my Comp 848 s in for a rebuild after 5 years and over 10k miles on a blown street driven HEMI.
This will be the second rebuild on these lifters.

 

[lewtot184]

solids may need different push rods. rollers need to be rebuilt periodically.

 

[dvw]

With my Indy cylinder heads, the heads trap the valley cover. Nice

Wasn't going to mention the brand, but they are Hughes.

I haven't had a bit of issue with the Hydraulic roller in my 360. Every current production pushrod motor runs hydraulic rollers. Also for what its worth the Indy valley tray will come off with the heads installed. It's kind of a pain. The worst part is breaking the RTV loose at the ends. Pull the distributor and tap a putty knife in under the plate at the front. The take a block of wood to knock the plate rear ward to break the seal at the rear of the block. When the plate slides back the front will fall into the valley. Then you can twist it out. I have to do it changing solid roller tappets on my racecar twice. This time i milled a hole in the plate and fabbed a cover.

 

[moper]

Not sure who your builder was, or if you did it yourself. But something that can be overlooked with hydraulic rollers and modern cam profiles is the spring pressures. Spring pressures, and potential valvetrain harmonics can trash a lifter in short order. Not enough pressure might be fine at lower rpm, but as things climb past "safe" things go wrong. Preload is also critical.

 

[b569rr]

Not sure who your builder was, or if you did it yourself. But something that can be overlooked with hydraulic rollers and modern cam profiles is the spring pressures. Spring pressures, and potential valvetrain harmonics can trash a lifter in short order. Not enough pressure might be fine at lower rpm, but as things climb past "safe" things go wrong. Preload is also critical.

I am running the matched valve springs with the cam; 555 lbs open 220 lbs closed.bottom end assembled at Buds engine shop and heads at Honest Performance. I quadruple checked geometry degree of cam and measuring push rods.

Anyways I left a message at Hughes this morning inquiring about a solid roller. Thanks for the replies everyone!!!!
Tom

 

[68 HEMI GTS]

Some of the guys are sending their Hyd roller lifters to Johnson to be re-worked. They can set them up for high performance use. I plan to send my cranes there before I use them again.

http://www.johnsonlifters.com/Home.aspx

 

[lewtot184]

i think high spring loads coupled with very fast ramps just kill the internals on a hydraulic tappet.

 

[69 GTX]

That's the very reason I went with solids. I don't mind setting lash once in a while. But I didn't want a trashed hyd lifter. I knew I was going to push the envelope with .630 lift on a 238 duration cam.

 

[vintage chromoly]

Ask Johnson about their short travel hydraulic roller lifters as well.

 

[dvw]

Solid rollers on the street vs hydraulic? I'd run a hydraulic every time. You think you have issues now. Ask around who runs solids on the street. They're a ticking time bomb.
Doug

 

[68 HEMI GTS]

I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to call Dave at Hughes on Monday and get some solids. I do not want to deal with this again. I work 50+ a week and time is not my friend.

Solid rollers require maint. Any time I run them in an engine I pull them every couple of years for rebuilding. I also try to avoid excessive idling, that does them in. Unfortunately I haven't found a good solution. I put a nitrided solid FT in my roadrunner with edm lifters. So far so good. If I loose this I'm going back to the HR with the short travel mod Johnson does.

 

[vintage chromoly]

I just put a custom crower cam in my 446 with their lightweight EDM flat solid lifters.
Only about 400 miles so far.

 

[Budnicks]

I've had 2 engine now with Crane Retrofit Hyd. Rollers #68532-16a
an older {like 20+ years} custom grind Crane Cam

Crane hydr. roller lifters
http://www.cranecams.com/userfiles/file/294-295.pdf -go to page 2-

I bought 2 sets & 2 spares originally from Mancini Racing like $490 each set
back 2003-2004 IIRC, I don't think MRE sells them anymore...
Anyway
I had great service life with the 1st set on my old 479ci Low deck
in my ol' Silver 68 RR, drove it hard for 12,000 street miles
some 100+ passes, test & tune days at Sac raceway &
the current new owner, still runs the exact same combo I sold him,
it has over 25,000 miles the last time I talked to him

Now my current 68 RR's engine too, been in it since 2007,
not that many miles thou...

On both engines both were lower mileage 383's
within proper clearance for the Retrofit Rollers
{not all worn out sloppy bores}
I have & always use the proper matched, dual springs, retainer & locks
I also use lash-caps religiously, I measure for the custom length
Smith Brothers 3/8" push rods, both sets/HR lifters were used with ported
Edelbrock RPM's 383/479ci 4.290" bore X 4.15" stroke combos