Roller lifter research

I recently agreed. to help a fella at his shop on non VW engine rebuilding by asking if I could help on some of the tear downs of some of the engines. I did a ford v6 last week just to to see the roller lifters used in it. I took mike readings and copyied allthe spec,s including the cam profiles .

I'm going to researh anything that has roller lifters. to see all the different production types , and configurations. to see what may be useable in my next project..

I got a freebee this evening My friend called me over to record the specs of a corvette LT 1 with the roller cam and lifters. I now see one possible candidate for my T-4. but I want to see some import stuff first.

But I could make this work but I,d have to do some case fabrication.

But I want something that anyone can do.. so I'll keep looking.

Jake Raby offers roller lifters/cam for a Type IV engine, see:

http://www.aircooledtechnology.com/r_d_engine.htm

Hi Larry !

As I understand it,, Jake Will only sell you the Cam and lifter Installed IN his engines as a complete package.

I can't afford that. I have only worked 2 days in the last 10 work days.

It's useless to try and barter with him.

Besides I got a do able idea on how to lick the roller lifter alinement problems. that only requires a little case work. on a stock T-4 case. But I'm going to research. some more before I pick and decide.

But I believe the guide framed lifter like GM uses have the right idea but backwards I want a guide plate for the lifters recessed inside the case. If I can design a slide in plate that is locked in place when the lifters pass through it. It will be a better design with no roller centering issues.

Are these Hydraulic or solid ?

The Gm were hydrolic's. And Im looking to see if anyone makes solids But It wouldn't be to hard to have some made as protypes and put the gm rollers on them ..I want to gather more imformaction before I tell you what I have decide. I'm going to take my time with this.

It took me 3 solid years to work out the drop in roller assembly that I now employ. Lots of broken parts, lots of trial and error and lots of determination are all that paid off.

No, I don't bartar very much, no time for that and it's too damn confusing.

I tried every lifter from .722-.944 diameter available before we finally bhad lifters made. The standrd .842 Chevy lifter may look promising, but you'll soon find that the limited lift allowed by the case and alignment issues will result in a compromise.

If you think this is easy, you have a lot to learn.. I failed for two solid years time and time again and spent about 25K in parts alone, another 10K in alignment and insrtion toling and 2K in other tooling to test the alignment of the bushings in relation to the cam tunnel. With rollers, if you are one thousandth off the cam will walk and destroy the cam bearings in less than an hour of run time.

I only sell the components in an engine with the complimentary spring pack and other valvetrain components that will take the abuse of the radically fast opening rates of the roller camshaft.Now that it's all worked out my arrangement only requires the bushings to be aligned with the alignment plates and then pressed into the case, no welding, no machining.

Once we worked it all out it worked beautifully, but this isn't something that can be done with minimal tools or a mindset that it is simple... Hell it failed over 20 times in a row in my test device before I ever put the arrangement into an engine!

not to say you can't do it- but expect to spend some money and pick up some pieces... I have several sets of .842 doweled lifters I'll sell you cheap, they would not work for us.

Jake
Has your roller now replaced ceramics as the lifters of choice in your engines ?

Tthe ceramic's will shatter in high rev situactions that why the racing circut dropped them. Just ask the folks a Sckoulbeck racing..

Are you saying you will sell them straight out or are you sticking to you policy Only in a complete engine package which if so were done here.. Gut tog

If you won't sell your best product I will just continue to upgrade the Gm type. so thanks Jake But NO thank no more junk . In these economic times people can't afford a 8 or 9 K engine.

So my plain is the same,to use the proven stuff.

I will use Gm as the model,putting the plate frame on the inside and reverse grind the guide flats on the other end of fresh milled shells for the lifter rollers making these aether solids or hydrolic's. At least it will be possible to remove one on a running engine. if it fails.

If you decide that your willing to cam and lifter sets straight out that's fine. but even then I couldn't afford them.

Most all my en gines larger than 2270ccs are now coming with roller lifters/ camshafts standard..

The ceramic lifters were AWESOME and still to date I have over 120 engines using them, NONE of which have seen a single failure from "shattering". I use them in our production race engines as roller lifters are not legal, we turn 9K RPM for 45n minutes at a time and have not seen a single lifter failure, even with insane cam profiles.

The reason why people experienced failures was due to the fact they were treating the technology like conventional lifters, and they didn't not understand the theory behind the material.

Teaching an old Dog new tricks is counter productive and expensive.. 35 years of experience generally just closes people's minds, then they beat themselves-

I still have that 2056. I just want to make sure it has a good chance for a long life.

Yes '' rollers would be over doing a 2056. but it should help it keep lobes on the cam and take some strain off the internals.

Yes the materials have to be of production or at least mid grade race quality for it to live decent. And I know the right people to to have stuff like that done.

If! I did have the spare money..

Right now It needs to be spent on the groceries and utilities and retirement. which may come sooner than later..NOW..

I just got laid off again for another weekend So it looks like its going back on the back burner any way. The last month has been awful not over 36 hrs any week this year. I have picked up a some odd and end work putting a set of one peace windows is a Baja for on fella and a little dizzy repair. But it all been just piddly stuff.. It's getting tough around here.. I need that engine on the veepster. I may yet have to sell it..