Lifters

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volaredon

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Who's good these days?
What's the difference between say the regular melling ones and their "performance" ones? Other than the price.
Putting a factory replacement 360 cam into a 318. (Melling SPD 25)
I know I know/ many will question this choice. But that's where I'm going. Cam is already bought.
Anyone here have any sitting on a shelf collecting dust? (New only)
 
About a month ago I installed Howard's hft cam and lifters into a 68 340. Everything went smoothly with no problems. The lifters that came with it looked exactly like another set of regular Melling lifters that I have stashed.
 
Who's good these days?
What's the difference between say the regular melling ones and their "performance" ones? Other than the price.
Putting a factory replacement 360 cam into a 318. (Melling SPD 25)
I know I know/ many will question this choice. But that's where I'm going. Cam is already bought.
Anyone here have any sitting on a shelf collecting dust? (New only)

Current ebay ad !!!!!

Screenshot_20220325-210556.png


Screenshot_20220325-210542.png
 
Cam saver? What's so special about those?
And what makes lifters "HI-Po" as in that ad?.
This engine will probably never see 4000 rpm.
 
You can use a Dremel with a thin cut off wheel to make your own groove. Been doing it for 20+ yrs.
 
Ive always liked Rhoads lifters. Kim
These were what I was thinking of when I saw some lifters listed as"performance" ones.
I thought you wouldn't want those on a mild cam, just with a wild cam. I remember reading what was so special about those but it's been a while. I haven't heard anything about them in years. I didn't think they were still available. Are the "performance" lifters from say Melling, for instance, the same idea as whatever makes Rhoads ones so special?

In asking about them, it's been a few years since I have done a cam and lifter job on a flat tappet cam. Last one was a total overhaul on a 4.0 jeep. And it came out fine.
Back then I didn't hear nearly as much about a new cam going flat so soon after install, as I do now a days. It's been such a hot topic since, that I'm a little leery of that happening. I don't want it to happen to either the /6 (solid lifters) I have on my engine stand or the 318 that is only coming apart far enough to put this cam I have for it, in.
Add in all this crap coming from China, and yeah things are a mess these days.
I have heard there are only 2-3 companies that make lifters and box them up for whatever company wants to sell them under "their" brand. True?.
I tend to try to find NOS parts that have been on the shelf for umpteen years to avoid buying Chinese crap.
 
They have a small groove down the sides to feed more oil to prevent cam failure during break in.
This is down the outside of the lifter body I assume?
On some"performance" ones I was looking at the other day, (don't remember the brand) there was something about a difference in the internal plunger somehow?
 
The best lifter I ever used was the type with a little wheel on the bottom :)

In all seriousness, with all the issues guys have been having with lifter failures plus the modern oils not being designed for flat tappets, I decided to go roller and never look back. The OEM manufacturers stopped using flat tappet cams in the 80s for a reason.
 
the Jeeps as I mentioned (4.0 inline) used flat tappets til the end of that engine. (around 06 as I remember) the last one I was into was an '02 and it was still that way.
at the moment I have a fresh /6 on a stand going into my 85 D150 (solids) and the original 318 in my 78 Fury that only has 55k miles on from new..... Im not swapping engines just to get roller lifters.
 
Who's good these days?
What's the difference between say the regular melling ones and their "performance" ones? Other than the price.
Putting a factory replacement 360 cam into a 318. (Melling SPD 25)
I know I know/ many will question this choice. But that's where I'm going. Cam is already bought.
Anyone here have any sitting on a shelf collecting dust? (New only)
If your interested I’ve got a brand new set of Mopar Performance and a new set of Hughes small block lifters. These were purchased years ago and I would want $110.00 (includes shipping) per set for them.
 
Check a few days ago, - Several "value" lifters were discussed by, IIRC Mattax and others .
just looked back ~9 pages of this forum and came up empty.

and "Mcodecuda" please clean up your inbox.
 
This is how someone explained these lifters to me a long time ago, something like this: The Rhoads lifter was a unique take on what makes a radical cam not very street friendly....duration. So they devised a lifter that had such a high bleed rate that at lower RPM's the lifter was so lazy that it would not open until 10-15 degrees into the ramp (example) like it would bleed out then finally catch and start pushing the valve at a lower lift even.... At higher RPM's the bleed rate was the same but the time was much quicker so it felt like the lifter wasnt bleeding down at all and giving full duration as well as valve lift, making a wild cam streetable and giving it full potential at higher RPM's. It sounds great on paper but it came with increased lifter noise and wear from what I remember. Crane Hi-intensity came out and quoted the same dual pattern performance without the noise due to a new metering design. I always thought it was a band aid approach but some people really liked them.
 
You can use a Dremel with a thin cut off wheel to make your own groove. Been doing it for 20+ yrs.
can you take a pic of some of your old ones or provide us a little more info on this mod? Sounds like an interesting project. I liked the EDM drilled solid lifters. a very small hole drilled from the face to the oil band. Direct oil injection to the lobes when splash lube is not adequate. These are hardened so a small .015 drill is near impossible to use without breaking. EDM uses a tiny wire like an arc welder to melt a hole that small.
 
Back in the seventies my brother bought me back a 340 and a heap of parts for my engine. Some of the parts were off a guys 383 2 barrel drag car that ran in stock class and ran ten sec qtrs. I used a set of hyd lifters that came out of that motor and that 340 of mine would easily rev to 7500 with the hyd 292 ,510 purple shaft cam in it. I could see that the oil hole on the side of the lifter had been brazed up and a new one drilled in a different location.We had the heads and inlet manifold also for that 383 and found that it had a lot of different machining work as they would not fit properly on a std block.
 
Pishta,
Don't know how to post on the forum but happy to email pics if you PM me an email address. Can be done on hyd & sol lifters, good because you cannot put EDM holes in hyd lifters...

On the Rhoads lifters. The inner piston had a groove [ like a thin slot ] top to bottom which gave a controlled bleed down rate. My understanding is that Comp, Crane etc could not copy the design because of a patent. So they used 'selective bodies & pistons' to control the gap & therefore bleed down rate; not as consistent in bleed down as a groove.
I modified std lifter to work like Rhoads by filing a flat on the inner piston. About 0.100" wide would provide a noticeable increase in idle vacuum & only a slight noise increase.
 
Go solid and you'll never have to put up with the bullshit.
 
A poor quality [ soft metal, no radius etc ] sol will fail just as quickly as a poor quality hyd.
 
I run a solid with the EDM hole, would do the EDM hole again if I had to do it over again. I have been in there a bunch of times. Never found one clogged. They are VERY small holes.
 
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