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General Topics/Tech TipsDiscussion on break in periods, rider comfort, seats and pad suggestions. Tech tips as they become available will be posted here.
Installed woods 222 (s&s pushrods, fueling lifters) in 103” 09 twin cam, looking online sounds like a lot of people, including woods set the lifter preload heavy ( up to 0.14) to reduce valve train noise.
I’m still dialing mine in, but was wondering, why would lengthening the pushrod/ going heavier on the preload lower the noise?
Just trying to understand why this supposedly works mechanically. Is it because of heat related expansion?
the most important thing is that you do not want the the plunger in the lifter body striking the retaining clip in the top as it will eventually fail. if there is too little preload, the cam when it rotates has room to create a gap which leads to noise. if the preload is way over the top, it will run quite but you run the risk of the valve staying off seat which can lead to running, idle, misfire and possible engine damage. the most recommended is the .050 but not written in stone especially if you are running travel limiters as i do. i set my lifter from the bottom and go for .030 valve stem clearance, you have to factor in rocker ratio so the exact preload is not of much use since you are running like a solid lifter, i do this because my machine is made for speed/ high rpm.
It's not a preload. The valve spring over rides the lifter to zero play. They bleed down.
There is 0.200 plunger travel in most lifter. Put it in the middle.
Be sure you understand the thread pitch so the turns go no more than 0.100 into lifter.
Carefully make sure you have no play and do your 0.100. If you filled the lifter with oil before installing, go very slow.
That's 0.100 is a huge length when it comes to cold and hot expansion of the parts that move a little in the engine.
Stock cams scarifice a little area before lift that compensates for a little bleed down when a lifter goes thru a lift cycle. Performance cams dont have that and may tick a little. Nature of the beast in them.
Last edited by Jackie Paper; Yesterday at 02:53 PM.
This is how I adjust pushrods with hydraulic lifters that are fashioned as OEM with a total lifter piston travel of 0.200". I shoot for 0.125" depth from the top. And with 32 TPI pushrods that's a total of 4 total pushrod turns, or 24 hex wrench flats. I've never had a noisy one and they always work as they should.
When using travel limiters, I adjust them 3 wrench flats from the bottom of the lifter bore. Again using 32 TPI pushrods that gets you 0.016" total rise from the bottom. I think S&S says use 5 wrench flats, I like 3 flats better, and it also aids in their operation.
Yes motors expand with heat. You will loose the space above the lifter to expansion. So then you also loose your presumed depth of OEM 0.100" in the lifter body by how ever much top end expansion occurs to effect the lifters piston depth. So that's why I always shoot for 0.125" depth.
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Woods 222 Lifter Preload
