Tonight I decided to take a look at the valve adjustment before I hit the dragstrip this weekend. I just checked them a couple of weeks ago before running the TX Mile. All was good. Of course after that there were a few test hits...some riding around and then al those runs on the way to 200 MPH.


What I found was about .010" additional lash on the #1 intake valve. All the rest were dead on perfect. Now I've been setting valves for a long time, and just like everyone else my initial thoughts were......." How did I mess that up last time?".


WRONG!! You didn't mess it up...something is wrong and you need to find out what it is.


Fortunately, in addition to all the other things I like about Brodix stuff...one of the best is those great big openings where you can get down in the lifter valley to the lifters. I simply popped off the rockers and used a magnet to pull the lifter pair out. Sure enough...the roller on the intake valve looked fine...but had a bunch of play in the axle shaft/bearing. It was still rolling...but was a little rough. The cam looked fine.


Also fortunately, I keep a few set of fresh lifters in stock for just such an occasion. I spent a few minutes fishing the new set in place, put everything back together and fired it up. That's a LOT easier than pulling an intake and going through all that drama.


These lifters have some time on them. I reused them several years ago when I put the turbo combo together. They've been street driven a good bit and had the living daylights spanked out of them when it was N/A and since it was turbo'd. They owe me nothing....they've done fine.


After this weekend I'll go ahead and replace the rest of them so they're all fresh and be ready for the summer.


Anyway, thought I'd remind everyone to take a look under the valve covers before the summer season begins....heck I'd even do it if I had a hyd roller.


JIM


PS- Yes I know I'm showing a pic of the even numbered bank. Forgot to take a pic on the #1 side.

 

Nice save, if you wouldn't have caught that this would be a very sad post.

 

Jim what kind àre they? Us poor sbc owners don't have big openings to pull lifters

But the indicator of a bad wheel is often just like you pointed out. Loose lash for no apparent reason. Maybe even gauling of the push rod tip because of the additional clearance

Is your brand rebuildable or do you think that solid bearings are superior? Does schubeck or something like that still produce the wheelless version?

 

Solid roller lifters are definitely a maintenance item.

Big blocks are much tougher on things than small blocks. Some is the angles, but small blocks can get by with less valvespring pressure due to lighter valves etc...so that helps too.

My spring pressure is around 275#'s on the seat and 800#open. I used to run it in the 650-675# open range when it was N/A, but with boost I've left it pretty high. My current cam is 20*smaller on duration than the N/A version...but still has .750"+ lift on intake...so the lobes are fairly aggressive. A flat tappet will have 350#'s to maybe 400#'s open on the outside edge.

These are Crane lifters. As I said, they've done fine. They are a needle type with pressurized oiling to them. I believe the bushing type are a definite improvement...but I've got lots of needle types in stock.

I typically replace/rebuild every couple of years. Some can be rebuilt and some can't. I've got Crane (can't rebuild), Comp (can rebuild), Lunati (made by Morel and usually not rebuilt). The Cranes and Morels are top of the line stuff, but I can't say Comp has given me any troubles out of the ordinary over the years.

The key is to pay close attention to valve adjustment. As mentioned...if you listen you can hear even a few .000's change in sound.

I've run solid rollers in this thing for 17 years now. Never had a catastrophic failure...but have had some do just like this one. I've driven it on 2500+ mile road trips with this type lifters and springs...in fact now that I think of it...THESE lifters did one of those trips from TX to North Carolina a few years ago while on a near .800" lift cam. Plus a lot of regular street cruising and a lot of running since adding the turbos. They were used in a dyno thrash session where we tried a few cams also in two different engines.

I originally built it with .0018 lifter/bore clearances. Various lifters are slightly different in size...actually they vary a lot by brand. Next time I go through the whole thing it would make sense to go to .903 lifters I suppose.

It's a "pay to play" thing. I think hyd rollers these days can do a lot better than in the past...but to really make them work most folks are using oversized .903 lifters and the really good ones aren't really that quiet either.

JIM

 

I have a solid lifter 350 with 160# seat pressure and a Rev Kit. Far less extreme than yours.

Yours is a story of EXCELLENCE about checking your junk and not taking the easy way out. There are those that would simply dial the 0.010 into the lash and go on with their life without figuring out why. Then they wreck the lifter, the cam, and hopefully not the crank and block with metal.

I recently broke a 7/16" rocker stud and am adding a girdle to my setup on top of upgrading to the next-level racing ARP studs. I should have some pretty epic dimensional stability with that change. It made me think about all the other stuff, though. Checking the lifters isn't all that easy. Really good catch on your part.

K