FE engine question ?

Where is the lube for the lifter's body coming from on a solid lifter engine...

Originally Posted by FEandGoingBroke

Where is the lube for the lifter's body coming from on a solid lifter engine...

Hey Gary,
The 1964 Ford and Mercury Shop Manual says: "The oil flows through the valve rocker arm shaft through drilled holes in each valve rocker arm to lubricate the bushing and both ends of the valve rocker arm. The excess oil spirals down the rotating push rod and lubricates the push rod seats." (bold face added)

Once the oil get down to the end of the push rod it has no where else to go other than in between the lifter and the lifter bore walls. BTW, the hydraulic valve oil galleries are drilled, even in the solid lifter engines. The galleries are just NOT cross drilled to connect them to a pressure source, so eventually, those galleries on a solid lifter engine would get filled with oil, and that would provide some lubrication for the solid lifter bodies.

I have heard of using solid lifters in a hydraulic lifter engine and leaving the oil galleries that normally are used by the hydraulic lifters connected to a pressure source for lubrication of the solid lifters. These oil galleries are a dead ended by a plug.

BTW, some one mentioned that the lifters on a 426/427/428 and the lifters in the Falcon were interchangeable. Well, on the 3.14's P Code engine, the solid lifters are interchangeable with the AMC Nash Rambler!

When I went to get lifters for the rebuild in 1989, they were out of a set of sixteen Ford lifters. There was an old tyme mechanic there who said: "The Nash Rambler uses those same lifters." I had one of the old lifters with me, and we compared them and sure enough they were the same.

The supplier gave me two boxes of twelve Nash lifters for less money that the price of one box of sixteen Ford lifters, AND he would have had to have ordered the Fords, whereas he had the Nashs on hand.

It's the little things that make this hobby fun!

Hope you are well (and cool).

JC

I know what you are thinking of. I think there was a stated way and a practical way of defining things. For as 406 knows there sure was a variance in those blocks. But, in the 1964 427 blocks that I had they did not have the long 18 inch or so gallery feed holes. The Cross drilled web at rear wasn't touched, nor the long ones from the flywheel end of the block. Saved a nickel there I figured.

A friend had a couple of the 1961 era 390's with three deuce carbs, and the remains to one racing 352 of 1960. They were racing engines from outset, never installed into production car. They too did not have the lifter bores drilled for oil. He only had the very used engines, and never re-assembled a one or fired it off.

The 427 I am thinking of was a 1964 H-M engine. It came out of the 1965 Galaxie that A.J. Foyt did the (often seen) end for end flip at opening of season at Riverside Raceway. That may be why no long drilled lifter bores too. Surprizing lack of "Alternate" parts used back then. Not much in the way of grinding or touching up on this engine.


Regarding the Rambler....

If the solid lifters worked ok, I wonder if any other lifters then worked equally OK?



Wm.

OK, I'll live with that for a bit.


Thanks JC and William.

Originally Posted by coosbaylumber

Regarding the Rambler.... If the solid lifters worked ok, I wonder if any other lifters then worked equally OK?

Hey Mr.CBL,
Apparently the Rambler solid lifters worked alright, they're still in the 3.14 even as I type.

I have a suspicion that there is a solid lifter design that gets specified for many engines, for I know for a fact that this is true of OTHER parts.

For example:

I have a 1967 Dodge Mail Van and the windshield wiper motor burnt out one day. So I went to the only salvage yard in the area, and showed him the motor and asked if he had one that would replace it. The guy pointed me to a bin of windshield wiper motors, and I found an identical unit. It was marked as a 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass part. That's a unit that has been standard for at least 18 years.

PUFE

JC