Roller lifters in a solid lifter block"

[FEDER]

If I use a ball ball pushrod with oiling holes and my rockers have a oiling to the cup would that oil My morel solid  roller lifters ? They also have an oil hole in the cup.

[MeanGene]

I have thought about that as an alternative to drilling the SL 427 blocks, but it would seem to want a HV pump with no restrictors to possibly get enough flow to matter, the series of controlled leaks that is the rocker assembly would have to be pretty "tight" to get an pressure to the lifters. Backwards of course, as the lifters have good pressure with small volume going thru them the conventional way, but still an interesting idea. I have another idea I have been tossing around that is also simpler than drilling the block- need to stare at it a little more...

[My427stang]

Technically the path may be there, but I think you would lose all, if not most of the pressure due to lash and the long run it needed to take.

I'd be afraid of especially of the ones furthest from the feed in the head, by the time rockers dump, not sure you'd have much left down at the roller pin

[jayb]

I agree with Ross, especially in light of the fact that at the rocker tip there is already an opening to oil the valve stem.  The oil would have to go down past that orifice and all the way down the pushrod before any oil got to the lifter.  There would be way more restriction on the pushrod side, and I doubt you would get sufficient oil to the lifter.

On the other hand, you could test it.  Assemble the engine on a stand and spin the oil pump.  See if you get any appreciable oil down at the lifter with 20 psi or so on the gauge.  If you do, it might work...

[Ranch]

How about if you were to broach a keyway in the lifter bores, say a 1/8” x 1/16” deep.  I don’t have a bare block to see how high the oil gets before the drain back holes take effect.  I realize that it would not be under pressure and cold oil might not get there as fast…..   Just a thought

[cammerfe]

My '64 390-330 block was a 'solid' block because the holes in the little 'tower' in the back of the valley were undrilled.

However, the front-to-rear galleries to the lifter silos were in place from the factory. I drilled the tower holes to finish the circuit to the lifters and then used the little grooving tool that's available from Comp Cams to offer a way for the now pressurized oil to get from the lifter silos down to the rollers/lobes of my solid roller camshaft.

FWIW, I also took advantage of the fact that the cam started as a steel core, and opened-up the cam tunnel to be able to install a set of roller cam bearings, (The cam journal sizes are the same for both engines) originally intended for a 385-type engine. We put the block in a boring mill and re-grooved the cam tunnel so there was a path to get the oil down to the mains. However, since the outer races of the roller cam bearings were solid, ALL the oil now went to the mains. Splash oiling was sufficient for the rollers---in the opinion of the crew of former performance engineers who'd taken retirement from FoMoCo and gone to work for Roush.

KS

[XR7]

Hi Daryl, if you are talking about using those Morel "bushing" or needle-less lifters, then it won't work. The bushing need pressure fed oil or they will fail. A needle bearing lifter can survive fine with just splash oiling, although pressure fed axles will last longer. Anyway I wouldn't try it with those lifters if that is what you are thinking. Morel makes good needle bearing lifters also, so if that is what you are talking about, then it could work. Like Jay said, dummy it up and try it. For what it is worth, I drilled my lifter galley's on my center oiler, use Morel bushing lifters and T&D race rockers, with ball/ball 7/16 "fatty" pushrods.

[FEDER]

Thankyou all for the responses. My 482 is together with a flat tap pet cam already.  But looking at the morels gives second thoughts. I will use the morels to replace the early comp roller lifters in My 428 as planned. Thanks again.