Blazin' Bob had too much oil squirting out around his lifters. He was looking for oversize lifters. They would be cylindrical, just like the originals, only 0.001" or more larger in diameter. Still cylindrical.
These oversize lifters are hard to find and usually expensive.
He finally found a set of 0.001" oversize lifters (cylindrical) NO MATTER what his lifter bores looked like, the slightly larger lifters cut down the looseness in his test block.
BB seems to think he could get all 16 lifter bores bored and sleeved for $300. That would be an extremely low price according to me. I have seen prices quoted at around $800 for the job. That puts the operation out of reach for many.
If you cant make the hole smaller make the lifter bigger. That doesn't seem to be too hard to follow. I didn't say make the lifters oval or any other shape. Besides, if you could make a lifter with a barrel shape or conversely wider at top and bottom and skinnier in the middle to match the lifter bore barrel shape (looking from the side), how would you assemble the valvetrain? Given any sort of thought the suggestion is ludicrous. BUT if you could make the lifters 0.001" or 0.002" larger in diameter while keeping them cylindrical, it'd cut down on the slop just like BB discovered in his spare block.
So how to make the lifters larger in diameter but remain cylindrical? Plate them. The write-ups on electroless nickel plating say that the nickel deposits at a very uniform rate. They also say the plated nickel is quite hard.
My conclusion is that for a block with worn out lifter bores it may be possible to salvage the block without spending a zillion dollars on sleeving the lifter bores. This would be done by increasing the cylindrical diameter of the lifters by the amount necessary by electroless nickel plating. The fit wouldn't be perfect but it would be better. Now all we need to do is check on the price.
