Rhoads lifters

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Oil has nothing to do with how Rhoads lifters pump up. They rely strictly on engine RPM.

That said, I've always looked at them as a "band aid" for over camming an engine. The only exception is their new VMax lifters. They are truly a different breed. But all in all, as long as you make the proper cam choice to begin with, the Rhoads lifters will not be necessary.
 
Years ago in my youth I had them in my 383 Dart with a Crain Fireball cam. There was a notable loss of low end with that cam pulled good on high end. Rough idle too. After I put the Rhoads lifters in I got all my low end back, smoothed out the idle and my around town gas mileage was the same as stock with them. They ticked a little like 16 bad lifters but they worked great with the cam. The combo gave me low end and top end power.
 
66340SEDAN said:
I think Rhoads are louder in a big block Chrysler, my buddy had them in a 440 Six Pack 4-speed GTX, they worked great but they hated the rattle so they pulled them....but did perform well.....like I said, they are quiet in my 340 :D
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Mine were not quiet in a 340 but i loved the waterfall sound at idle, it sounds just like a good solid lifter v8 with mufflers so you can hear the engine. Maybe alot of folks these days have not heard solids to compare to.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Oil has nothing to do with how Rhoads lifters pump up. They rely strictly on engine RPM.

That said, I've always looked at them as a "band aid" for over camming an engine. The only exception is their new VMax lifters. They are truly a different breed. But all in all, as long as you make the proper cam choice to begin with, the Rhoads lifters will not be necessary.
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I might have agreed with this until i ran a set with an automatic. These let you cam the engine heavy and still have tractable idle for accessories like auto and AC. I am building a 4 speed 383 car with ac now and chose rhoads lifters to tone down the idle to make it easier to drive on the street. I love the way it smoothly builds power as it all comes back by 3000 or so. Late model cars accomplish this with roller cams that can use a much steeper cam lobe to keep idle good. Rhoads lifters give engine builders roller cam type impact at a fraction of the cost.
 
arh said:
i have read some older posts and it seems people were happy with them. my 360 runs very well but idles pretty rough with the hughes whiplash cam. will the rhoads smooth out the idle?
will there be a noticable improvement in low rpm performance. motor is in a 69 barracuda convert. 904, 7.25 with 2.76 gears
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You can expect lower idle speeds without stalling and higher vacuum by 2-3 inçhes.
It will have great power taking off and should let you shuck all the ring gear teeth right off that 7.25
Maybe a dana 44 out of a 97 grand cherokee would be a good swap soon. 8.75 a body axles are expensive these days but an aluminum dana 44 might be cheap enough to justify fabbing up spring perches.
 
MRL Performance said:
If I were to run the rhoads lifters with this whiplash cam, I would only run them on the exhaust side.

Note for all reading this. Please LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE!!!! Do not use them to "tame" a big cam on a higher compression engine. That was a bad day for me. Detonated the crap out of one of my race engines and this was the end result. SHAT Happens.
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Maybe try it again on e85 and see if the cylinder pressure can be put to use in a good way?
 
BillGrissom said:
They are made to tame radical high-lift cams at low rpm. Read more on Rhoads website. I was reading recently about Fiat's "multi-air" engine design (2.4L Chrysler 200). It is basically an electronic version of the Rhoads lifter, i.e. an electrically-controlled leak-down lifter. One good question is why Rhoads were never used in factory engines. My guess is that production cams were not wild enough to benefit greatly, and perhaps they worried about owners who let their oil get gunky which could clog the leak-down passages so they don't work right.

I put Rhoads lifters in my 273 but haven't run the engine much, plus a fairly mild cam (0.422/0.440 lift) so harder to notice an effect. I have another set I might put in my 383. I got both sets fairly cheap on ebay. Too bad I can't use them in my slant (no oil supply at lifters)
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Some oem engines have used a variable duration lifter to advantage. Dodge viper in later years had what was known as nola lifters that were vari duration and that design made its way into pt cruiser turbo, srt4 neon and 3.7 v6. My son put them on the intake side of a nasty steel crank turbo II he put in an auto cross daytona to help bottom end from corners.
 
66340SEDAN said:
I think Rhoads are louder in a big block Chrysler, my buddy had them in a 440 Six Pack 4-speed GTX, they worked great but they hated the rattle so they pulled them....but did perform well.....like I said, they are quiet in my 340 :D
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Dibs on your buddies goid pulled set
 
krazykuda said:
I don't think that OEM's used Rhoades lifters because they didn't have enough volume to support some of
There's more to being a supplier to a car manufacturer than you think. Lots of responsibility and liability, if you are a small shop, and make a mistake, the OEM would own you.


For the minivan engine alone was 500,000 engines per year times 12 lifters per engine. That would be 6 million lifters per year alone just for one engine family. I'm not sure if Rhoades can handle that volume alone, much less get more engines and more manufacturers to sign up.
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Chrysler engineers did source a variable duration all hydraulic lifter for later years Vipers and turbo 4 cylinders like pt cruiser and srt4. They actually scienced them out for 3.7l v6 in Jeep Liberty. In the literature they were called nola lash adjusters.
 
Ex
krazykuda said:
How did you come to diagnose that failure due to the Rhoades lifters.


I've run them for years on many engines and for over 250,000 in an engine with no problems.
Are you sure that something else didn't cause that failure?
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Extra cylinder pressure at lower speeds could have been an issue, how fast did you have the spark advance coming in?
 
Oil v
RustyRatRod said:
Oil has nothing to do with how Rhoads lifters pump up. They rely strictly on engine RPM.

That said, I've always looked at them as a "band aid" for over camming an engine. The only exception is their new VMax lifters. They are truly a different breed. But all in all, as long as you make the proper cam choice to begin with, the Rhoads lifters will not be necessary.
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Oil viscosity can change the rpm that the duration will come back in. Without dyno runs before and after, or time slips...i don't know how to quantify it. My gut tells me that unless your running some 20w50 oil it is nominal impact.
 
LOL! Is this a career move? LMAO

Great old thread.

FWIW, in case you didn't know or if it hasn't been mentioned earlier, Rhodes also makes there lifters in roller as well.
 
rumblefish360 said:
LOL! Is this a career move? LMAO

Great old thread.

FWIW, in case you didn't know or if it hasn't been mentioned earlier, Rhodes also makes there lifters in roller as well.
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Rollers make sense for them to offer if they want to keep going. I would not want to count on a nitch market of a 40 year old car! I do like the drop in flat tappet solution because you don't have to change anything else. I would probably check the lifter depression when I bolt the rockers on since i have seen a 340 that needed spacers to get the lifter preload right...and then the variable feature could help.
As for this being an old thread...Hindsight is 20/20 and the threads will always be looked at by future subscribers so if the info changes...I still respond.
 
I didn't just make it up. Go on the Rhoads site and read. They explain all about how they work and clearly say it's not by oil pressure, but RPM. I would hope they know how their own product is designed.

fixitfirstime said:
I might have agreed with this until i ran a set with an automatic. These let you cam the engine heavy and still have tractable idle for accessories like auto and AC. I am building a 4 speed 383 car with ac now and chose rhoads lifters to tone down the idle to make it easier to drive on the street. I love the way it smoothly builds power as it all comes back by 3000 or so. Late model cars accomplish this with roller cams that can use a much steeper cam lobe to keep idle good. Rhoads lifters give engine builders roller cam type impact at a fraction of the cost.
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FixIt

Just a joking jab at the situation and not yourself. I allways LMAO at old threads coming back up. Sometimes, a few years cannot date the information.

Once I get the rocker geo right, I'm not to worried about the lifter depression except on the Rhodes it could be that of concern on just how you want it set up.
It n a standard lifter, I'm not so worried as long as it is depressed enough.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I didn't just make it up. Go on the Rhoads site and read. They explain all about how they work and clearly say it's not by oil pressure, but RPM. I would hope they know how their own product is designed.
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I cheated, i took one apart before the website existed
 
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