I would like to know or hear from anyone that is running Solid Rollers in their build and if they are running a solid lift cam or a hydraulic cam with solid rollers and noticed any performance gains.. Don't really care about added noise warm.. I do understand that going to a solid roller on a hydraulic cam will change the duration because the hydraulic lifter will collapse a little initially opening the valve a little later than a solid would.. Anyways just curious... I know I ran hydrosolids in my shovel and they worked very well.. I even set them to 1 flat of preload...

 

This question might reveal my lack of knowledge on the subject, but would not preload on a solid lifter mean the valves will not fully close until the engine is warm?

Unless the push rods flex ever so slightly?

 

Why not just run travel limiters.

You don't pre-load a solid lifter. You set a valve lash. It will be noisy on cold start. Actually a bit noisy even hot.

 

Noisier when hot because when the cylinders get hot they grow, if I remember correctly, around .060. That's a lot of valve lash. If you have to run solid lifters you had better have cast iron cylinders because they won't grow as much as aluminum alloy cylinders.

 

Yes you are right.
I've never run solids on a harley. I was thinking of my much younger days adjusting tappets (valve lash) on late 40s and early 50s Fords and Chevy. I think maybe they called them tappets because they tapped.

 

1 flat on a 32 TPI pushrod is only .005" it's not enough to cause any cold start problems and as the motor heats up and expands it will end up with at least .012" of lash.. Not and issue...

 

And what do you think the sleeves are made of.. .060" is a lot and I don't Believe they grow that much..

 

Evo upper ends gets feed through the pushrods pumped by the lifter's don't they ? Limiters or solids kinda puts a kink in that wouldn't it ?

 

No. Limiters shorten the available travel of the piston. They have zero effect on the oil supply to the top end.

 

Should I assume this is in the context of EVO? Not sure if there are even any good grinds available in EVO for solids? With Shovel it’s my preference! So many advantages with solids.

1) The noise intimidates whoever sits in the right lane.. puts a fear in their mind that they are in a lane next to a crazy persons who’s motor will grenade.
2) You can play with valve lash to see if less exhaust duration would help by running a lap or two with excessive lash.
3) You can maximize geometry by use exceptionally low adjusting lifters with lighter solid chromoly pushrods (6500+ rpm)
4) Never worry again about collapsing a lifter
5) Easier to check rocker arm and box clearances
6) Less expensive
7) Possibly less taxing on oil pressure

Secrets I should keep to myself: But hey, who bothers to read my posts lol. Look for old sifton solid adjustable lifters. They are wonderfully made with sturdy wheels.. the adjusting rods are super low in the lifter helping valve geometry. Grinding the blocks out for increased lift is easy. The sifton solid lifters are harder and harder to find I have just one NOS set left..