Hollow valve lifters worth it?

[oldford2]

[" I expect JWL and/or Pete will be along shortly to set us all straight regarding the use of adjustable lifters... again. Let's just say they like doing it the OEM way, which has the advantage of never getting out of adjustment"]

Well, of course, that is if the cam bearings, cam lobes, base of the lifter, top of the lifter, and valve stem don't wear.
Never say never
It is easy for the "experts" to say that adj. lifters stink because they have a valve grinder in their shop. for those that enjoy assembling an engine in their home shop without a grinder, the adj lifter is great.
John

[flatjack9]

No.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by oldford2

[" I expect JWL and/or Pete will be along shortly to set us all straight regarding the use of adjustable lifters... again. Let's just say they like doing it the OEM way, which has the advantage of never getting out of adjustment"]

Well, of course, that is if the cam bearings, cam lobes, base of the lifter, top of the lifter, and valve stem don't wear.
Never say never
It is easy for the "experts" to say that adj. lifters stink because they have a valve grinder in their shop. for those that enjoy assembling an engine in their home shop without a grinder, the adj lifter is great.
John

They are NOT great and never will be.
You need a valve facer to face the valves but you do NOT need one to set them with stock lifters. It can be done with a lathe and it doesn't have to be a nice new lathe either.

[oldford2]

Pete,
How are they held in the lathe? Collet or chuck? Would you need a dial indicator setup to measure the cut? Do you grind the end with an attachment or turn the end with a carbide bit? Do you have a picture of your setup?Thanks
John

[Pete]

I don't have any pics. I have 2 lathes. One has the positive micrometer stop that came with it. This works fine.
On the other lathe there is a small bracket that will take any standard indicator.
This works equally well. It might be better for someone that has trouble reading micrometers due to old age....lol
Just put the valve in the 3 jaw and leave about 1/2 inch sticking out. Turn with a carbide tool. Almost any rake angle on the tool will work. Not critical.
Lathe rpm around 300-400.

[JM 35 Sedan]

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I have a lathe, a valve refacer and a valve seat grinder and as far as I'm concerned the engine gurus can grin, laugh, smile, giggle, or roll all over the floor all they want but for the few street engines that I have built or will build in the future, I still prefer to use good quality hollow adjustable lifters. Vern Tardel has some good tips in this months on-line newsletter on what he does on his FH engine builds to keep adjustable lifters from loosening prematurely. I posted the url to his newsletter on another post on adjustable lifters.

[Brian]

In my opinion, the finest adjustable lifters are those made by Mike Davidson [flatattack] in Australia. Oh, hang on, blimey, that's offshore!!!

[JWL]

Hold on here!! My "grin" was with regard to the question Flatjack asked relative to the country of origin being unknown.

I have used adjustable lifters, both solid and hollow, in many engines and have not had the headaches, wear issues, and generally unsatisfactory results many people warn of. I have close to 30,000 miles on the adjustable lifters in my old 40 Ford with a "cammed" 276.

[flatjack9]

And I have close to 50,000 on mine in my 39 with a 276 incher.

[Hal Beatty]

JWL... my apologies for mis-representing you... Sorry!

[PhoenixFear]

The guy who is machining my engine, Baxter, says for me just to buy adjustable lifters hands-down. He didn't specify which type but that's what I'll probably end up buying. I'm looking at Red's Headers for them, not sure who makes them but they are a good price. They list the hardness as 55-58.

[rhinodaddy]

Hal - I'm not that old school. Don't feel like dusting solid lifters down to size, but they're welcome to continue doing it that way. Besides, Johnson's are not new tech, so I'd argue adjustables are old school too.

Jack - I don't doubt the Drake lifters are offshore, given their price and comments I've seen on the boards about other Drake parts. Are you saying the solid Isky's are offshore?

[Ol' Ron]

Adjustable are a God send to those of us that build flatheads. There are very few people on this earth that can set the vlaves the old fashon way, Walt Dupont is a master at it andvery seldom uses adjustables. The special fixturese he uses to weld valve stems and grind them make the jobe quit simple, since he's been doing it for more than 50 years. With that said, the biggest problem with adjustables is they come in only one length. Back in the day they had a thicker bolt for high lift cams with small base circles. Today we have chevy valves which have longer stems to solve these problems. Thinking is part of hotrodding.

[rhinodaddy]

Just so I'm clear guys, I was more concerned with hollow vs. solid. I have to admit the little voice in my head told me some of the Drake parts are made in the same factory as Harbor Freights screwdrivers (can I say that here?). Ok for fenders, not so much for rotating or reciprocting engine parts.


At the end of the day, you do what lets you sleep at night and it would be a pretty boring hobby if we all did the same thing the same way.


Ron - I always enjoy seeing your posts. I guess each of us obsesses over certain things more than the other guy. I'd prefer to go with adjustables and move on to something else tha needs fixing.


JM - Thanks. I'll have to look for the link.


Brian - Agreed. I've read Mike Davidsons book on street builds, and it's outstanding.

Overall, thanks to everybody for chimimg in. I'm sticking with the solid adjustables from Patrick's and passing on the hollow adjustables from Drakes.

[Ol' Ron]

Back in the 90's when I started building engines only the solids were available and I used allot of them. street engines doun't usuall rev very high so I din't think the weight is an issue.

[oldford2]

Well, with all these postings on pro's and con's about adj. lifters (hollow , solid) and solid lifters and grinding the stems, I just picked up a very low mileage Black & Decker valve grinder. I have rebuilt 3 flatheads in the last 3 years and used adj. lifters. Just great. But, I will be rebuilding another and will use the old solid lifters and grind the stems in my shop for adjustment. Just for the "fun" (and experience) of it. I will still let my engine guy grind and lap the valves to the seats since I don't have a seat grinder. One step at a time.
Off to the New England tour this week in the 46 and looking forward to the stop at Walt Dupont's shop. I visited Ol Ron last year and these guys are sure fun to meet with.
John

[mrmoose]

John, I sure wish I could make that tour...the itinerary looks amazing. Have a ball and please take lots of pix...especially of Walt's shop if he doesn't mind. And not that it mattters to this thread, but my '41 (the 4 banger) has solid adjustable lifters...from the factory.

[31 coupe]

Hollow adjustables, I couldn't resist the Drake special ~$145 price and got some. They're made in Taiwan and Drakes indicated that they've had no returns as yet, apparently?????