Which Hydraulic Roller Lifters?

[Nxcoupe]

Which Hydraulic roller lifters did you use in your BB? Share the good and bad. Would you buy them again?
I'm going hydraulic roller in my 361 stroker build and want to see who's had good luck with the brand they chose and who hasn't.

 

[Vertex_Jeff]

The 505 in my '67 Cuda is running a set of Gaterman. They are nice and quiet and seem to be working fine with my shift points up to 6500 rpm. In past iterations of the engine, I ran Morel Limited Travel as well as Howards branded as Trickflow. The Howards didnt seem as stable at 6,000 rpm. The Morel Limited Travel were noisy, and the preload adjustment threshold seemed to be pretty touchy. Just my 2 cents. Here is the Gaterman info: Retrofit hydraulic roller lifters for Plymouth, Dodge, Chrysler V8

 

[6PKRTSE]

I have also run Comp Cams with now over 65,000 miles in one engine and I have also used Morel and Gaterman lifters with no issues.

 

[70ChargerRT]

For a hydraulic roller after a morel failure I wouldn’t run anything but a Johnson Lifter.

 

[65CopCar]

After PRI I am convinced I will never buy another roller lifter with roller bearings. Bam and Johnson now have lifters that use a bushed bearing. I think Bam only makes bushed bearing roller lifters. I would feel good with either a Bam or Johnson lifter.

 

[70ChargerRT]

After PRI I am convinced I will never buy another roller lifter with roller bearings. Bam and Johnson now have lifters that use a bushed bearing. I think Bam only makes bushed bearing roller lifters. I would feel good with either a Bam or Johnson lifter.

BAM didn’t use to make a hydraulic roller lifter for a Mopar but maybe they do now. I don’t know if BAM would But I don’t think Johnson would care to build a custom lifter but It wouldn’t bother me one bit to run a Johnson roller lifter with needle bearings.

 

[BSB67]

If you are having roller bearing failures with hydraulic or solid street roller cam profiles/pressures, you are experiencing a quality issue, not a roller bearing issue.

 

[Nxcoupe]

If you are having roller bearing failures with hydraulic or solid street roller cam profiles/pressures, you are experiencing a quality issue, not a roller bearing issue.

Yes, the factory uses them. When you start hearing about lifter failures on OEM engines, it's a low bidder supplier issue. Just my $.02 worth.
But I want all the input I can get, especially first hand experience, so I appreciate all the posts in here so far.
This will be lucky to see 5500 to 5800 rpms, more than likely just 5k. Just a cruiser build that I want to last 50k miles without issue.

 

[dvw]

I'd use a bushed solid roller. They are bulletproof.
Doug

 

[qkcuda]

I'm not much help since mine were Crane rollers which are no longer available. They are quite heavy which means you need a lot of spring pressure to control the inertia, so I would see if any of them are lighter than others. I like the bushed idea, but not sure who makes them.

 

[dvw]

I have Crane hydraulic rollers in my 360. 220/234@ .050. Runs to 7000 easy. The valve covers haven't been off since it was built in 2004. No valve train noise.
Doug

 

[BSB67]

I'd use a bushed solid roller. They are bulletproof.
Doug

Doug, I think you meant good bushed solid rollers are near bulletproof.

There are reports of less expensive bushed rollers failing.

Again. Buy quality, and your street stuff will last forever.

 

[dvw]

Doug, I think you meant good bushed solid rollers are near bulletproof.

There are reports of less expensive bushed rollers failing.

Again. Buy quality, and your street stuff will last forever.

Isky, Bam, costly to start. Cheaper in the long run.
Doug

 

[70ChargerRT]

Nothing is bulletproof but if you’re not running bushed roller rockers along with your bushed lifters……..

 

[BSB67]

Isky, Bam, costly to start. Cheaper in the long run.
Doug

Yes, we agree on Bam and Isky.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Yes, we agree on Bam and Isky.

Does Gaterman lifter fit into this too?

 

[Curiousyellow71]

Does Gaterman lifter fit into this too?

No, I think we're a little off topic because BAM only does solid roller lifters not hydraulic rollers. Solid roller lifters w bushing are made by several companies now. Isky is the only one that sells hydraulic roller lifter(HRX) which has a bushing and not needles..but only for a .842 lifter not a mopar. Johnson makes the HRX for ISKY. I wish they made a HRX for a bb mopar.

Whenever crane hydraulic rollers has been mentioned in above posts with success that is similiar to what Gatorman sells. Except Gatorman has some oversea's (chinese) parts in them now.

If the cam is smaller I would consider comp cams evolutions. The small bore of the lifter cartridge limits it as it won't like rpms or big spring that a larger cam would need. The HR lifters we ran were from Comp, still going but never been overly impressed, the evolutions were not out at that time yet. I think the evolutions are a good fit for milder builds.

Johnsons I believe to be the best we can get for BB mopars at the moment. They are also pricey. Out of our budget..so take it FWIW.

The last 3 we switched to hybrids. HR cams w solid roller lifters with pin oiling. We zero lash them. Getting quite a few miles on them now. My favorite one was from Tim at bullet.

 

[70ChargerRT]

Out of my budget also but…..

 

[Geoff 2]

It is a risk issue.....
A lifter using needle rollers can fail very quickly causing a lot of damage. Even worse for sol lifters because neither ball nor roller brgs like being hammered.
A bushed lifter is more likely to develop noise, but give you time to investigate before total failure.
No needle rollers for me....

 

[70ChargerRT]

It is a risk issue.....
A lifter using needle rollers can fail very quickly causing a lot of damage. Even worse for sol lifters because neither ball nor roller brgs like being hammered.
A bushed lifter is more likely to develop noise, but give you time to investigate before total failure.
No needle rollers for me....

So you also use bushed roller rockers?