Solid Roller

[allrightmike]

Can a solid roller lifter run in a solid lifter 427 block? How about a bushed lifter?

[blykins]

I haven't ran bushed lifters in a solid lifter block, but I've ran needle bearing lifters many times.   

The best solid roller situation is an oil supply fed to lifters with pressure fed oiling provisions.

[allrightmike]

Pretty much what I figured. Just weighing my options, found black magnetic matter on magnet drain plug, sort of like graphite in texture, haven't opened filter yet.
Fresh engine, solid flat tappet, low pressure springs, zinc, proper brake in RPM, all I could think of. If I have lobe-lifter degradation will I find larger particles in the filter? Will check tappet lash for extra clearance indicating wear. 

[SSdynosaur]

The Comp Cams design engineer participated in a seminar for "Engine Labs" a few months back and when asked the same question replied that their in-house spintron testing revealed that, tested under nearly identical  circumstances, the bushed roller required nearly three times the continuous volume of oil to survive as did the bearing roller. One could deduce from those results that a block without lifter galleries would not be an ideal situation for bushed roller lifters.

[allrightmike]

Yes, that does seem to be the conciseness.

[Tommy-T]

I ran a Comp 308R in a C3 427 solid lifter block for a couple of years. While not a "big" roller cam it is substantial.

My personal observations on running a solid roller on the street are:
The valve springs are going to wear out long before the lifters do. When the spring pressure goes away, things start flying around and break. The flip side is, and there's always a flip side, if you're using the factory 4 bolt rocker shaft hold down on aluminum heads you don't want to go much over 200lbs seat pressure if you want to keep the shafts attached to the heads.

If you're going to drive a few hundred miles during summertime it's not that big of a deal. If you're driving a couple thousand, stay solid flat tappet.

My personal recipe, new springs every winter, lifters every three.

[Stangman]

I also have a c3 block and always had a solid flat tappet and I am now going solid roller and was told I had to have the block drilled for it to work properly.
I  dont do many street miles maybe 500 a year. i think Im 210 seat pressure 550 open Tommy are you saying you change springs every year I can see lifters evey 3-5
years but didnt think springs would wear that fast. Then again Ive never had a solid roller.

[1968galaxie]

I think quality of valve springs have vastly improved to greatly increase lifespan.
I run a big solid roller in my Galaxie (502" 385 series) 276/290 @ 0.050" .795" lift.
I changed the valve springs after 11 years.
The Manley NexTek 221424 springs were still within 10 lbs of original seat pressure.
If I had raced 1/4 mile hundreds of times I suspect the springs would have needed replacement much sooner than 11 years.
Street driving with the occasional 7000 rpm blast in second gear certainly did not tax the springs.

[frnkeore]

I would check out the way the different rollers are gravity lubed and pick the best lifter oiling that way. You can add some oil by grinding a .002 deep flat, inline with the sides of the axle, front and back, similar to the Crower "Cam Saver" but, all the way, from end to end. The cam savers just go to the lifter recess, to squirt pressurized oil on the cam.

You could also, grind a deeper but, narrower groove, for more oil.

[cammerfe]

I researched this general topic extensively a while ago when I decided to build a 390 using a C4 block that had come from a '64 PI car. As such, it had the longitudinal lifter oiling galleries drilled, but the cross-drilling in the tower in the back of the valley was left alone. As part of the work I had done, I had the passages in the valley opened and then tapped so as to use short set screws to re-plug as desired.

I also used the grooving tool available from Comp Cams to cut the walls of the lifter silos so as to pressure lube the rollers. It all worked just fine. I used the entire Comp package except I used locks that reduced seat pressure a bit. I believe I ended up with about 250 Pounds on the seat. The cam offered 242-248 at .050 and .660 lift. I built it for street driving in my '63 Effie ICB.

KS