Lifter swap possible?

[vwmikey]

I am still new to the type 4 engine I was wondering if I could use solid lifters in a G.E. 79 2000cc Hydraulic motor.

[wildthings]

Why would you want to. In my experience hydraulics give far fewer problems. Have seen several hydraulic engines that have gone 300,000 miles or more, and don't believe that performance is compromised if you are running a stock cam.

[aircooledtechguy]

It's *possible*, but you'd be asking for problems if you do and here's why. . .

1. When lifters and cams wear-in, they have matching wear characteristics which compliment each other. This ensures long happy life. You promote this during the initial break-in of the motor (the first 20 minutes or so @ 2500 RPMs). If you swap lifters around or change lifters entirely, the wear characteristics do not match and they accelerate wear of BOTH cam & lifters (sometimes in as little as 500 miles all parts could potentially be toast.

2. 99.99999% of type-4 cams/lifters are worn out. T-4 motors are especially hard on cams. It's unfortunate because most everything else in the bottom-end is still good, but the cams are toast. Just Tuesday, I pulled a clients T-4 motor apart and it had almost no exhaust lobe for 1&3 left. . . No lifter swap in the world would help that, so just figure that you need a cam, they ALL do.

3. Hydraulic cams have different ramp rates on the lobes than solid lifter cams do. This alone is not a terminal thing, but when you consider points 1&2, you're just adding to the incompatibility of it all and stacking the odds against yourself.

Bottom line: you *can*, but I wouldn't. I'm personally a fan of solid lifters over hydraulics on new engine builds. However I have build several engines w/ hyd lifters (stock builds ONLY) for some of my clients. It depends on the client and what we decide together on planning the motor build. There are some clients that consistantly gaff-off routine maint; those folks I suggest hyd lifters cuz you can get away with less maint that I know they won't do anyways. . . Sorry to ramble. . .

[vwmikey]

I was reading that in the initial start up that they rattle real bad and was wondering if this is a problem and will it cause early wear out. I will be putting it in a manx stle buggy so no real hottrodding just a lot of driving. I don't believe in trailer queens. If I can't drive it to wal-mart or dairy queen who needs it. So thanks for the info.

[Bleyseng]

I am still new to the type 4 engine I was wondering if I could use solid lifters in a G.E. 79 2000cc Hydraulic motor.

Sure, just change the cam and lifters plus the pushrods to the solid setup. I like solids and in my experience hydro cams wear out much faster than solid cams. Why? the lifters are always contacting the cam under pressure where solid lifters do have a spot where they have no tension.

[wildthings]

Initially set the adjustment so there is a little bit of lash, like .002+/-. This will usually cause the lifters to pump up very quickly. Once they pump up reset them to their designed preload.

[raygreenwood]

By the way...if you are setting the hydro lifters to the setting in the book...they are incorrect. The setting in all of the manuals is a typo.. Do a search....or suffer. Ray

[typ4]

I prefill the lifters on a new engine build, and that helps them rattle less initially. Hydraulic is the way to go.