SMALL BLOCK LIFTER BORE CLEARENCE

Is 0.003” lifter bore clearence too much in a 59 degree solid roller application?
These bores are iron and not bushed.
Thanks

Too much for me.

X2
Too loose, leaks away oil pressure and allows side thrust.

If you decide to run it I would recommend taking the extra time to tube the block. After having an issue last year and seeing how much oil shoots around those roller lifters I will never prep another block without doing it. Even on a planned solid lifter built.

How does the hydraulic lifters get by with out tubing the blocks?I understand they aren't going to see the rpm's as the solid roller but?My current car we tubed the block and all is good for four years now.Just freshened it and all good.I'm currently putting together another for son with solid flat tappet without it being tubed so very interested the post.

He said in his post that he’s going with a roller cam. Tubing the block works great with both solid and roller lifter cams.

So is the idea to tube to just keep more oil to the bottom end?How many guy's use solid flat or roller with out tubing?I suppose it keeps extra oil of top of crank also.

How many guys? I’m betting quite a few because I am always hearing of guys that have oiling issues. I was shocked to see exactly how much oil was coming out of the lifter bores when we primed his engine with the intake off. Lots of wasted oil that could be used for rod and main bearing oiling. Never again for me. I will send out a block for cleaning and mag work then bring it home to tube.

Too many guys aren't doing the simple tube fix. Every solid lifter engine should have it done.

I ain't sure how much clearance I had but it was too much & it made the oil psi drop dangerously low after a bit of running. I'm gonna tube that block/go with solids.

Hopefully it works out for you but I think the added clearance will mess with lifter rotation. We put a used 610 lift roller in my sons 360 and it runs like a beast going 6.54@3200 pounds.

I think it is time to get the bores bushed.......
Just very expensive

Ive tubed blocks for others but myself, (running composit solids), have never needed to, im not sure if its because I start out with new blocks or very low use oem blocks with good lifter bores.

I know the uncovering deal is an issue for some but the couple very early 360 block I use have not been a problem, ive a mid 70-s 360 block that I didnt use because it would of been the one.

With the op being good all the time and main bearing always looking good on the winter inspection ive never really given it a second thought because its never presented a problem.

But the .003 is alot of clearance.

Good point! (& noted). Thank you.

It would appear when Mopar machined their after market blocks they opened the bores to approx. 0.906” for the 0.904” lifter. This is ok for a flat tappet lifter however, most of the solid roller lifters available are 0.903” diameter, which is where the extra clearence is from. I guess they figure people building a solid roller will bush the block because of the uncovering of the oil gallery problem. I heard of this with the Mopar a Hemi blocks. Wonder if the 48 degree blocks are the same?

Tubing is not an option as I have pushrod oiling for T&D rockers.

What block are you using? I have 3 X blocks, one of which was brand new and an R block and none of them has lifter bores that big.

I was wondering what block hes using as well... not much would shock me if it were an R3 block.

340 Siamese resto block. Pretty much 59 degree R3 with the valley machined for wet sump. Can’t remember the pn.

Well then that really sucks big time.

I'm going to dig out the R block and double check that again.

Once the lifters bores are sorted, there will no part of the block that hasn’t been touched in some way. I keep telling myself it’s ok because I have had friends that have had grief with Dart, Chev and Ford engines.......just not to the extent Ma Mopar has dealt us.

Yep. I've never seen an out of the box anything. They ALL need work.

I've just not seen the Chrysler aftermarket stuff have an oversized lifter bore issue. Until now.

I think I would see about buying a set of the GM style .904 solid roller lifters Crower, Isky, Crane, Morel and so on
I primed a 400 block this week with a old set of Engle brand solid roller lifters in it, they leaked a lot of oil around the lifter body but the motor still had 80 Lbs. of oil pressure using a old 1/2 inch Craftsman electric drill motor to prime it, probably less than 500 RPM on the oil pump drive gear
.003 is .0015 per side, correct
I would try priming it first before fixing it

this may or may not apply to your situation but I had enough psi when priming & also when it fired but then when it dropped to 15 shortly thereafter I had to shut it down.

Good call. Problem being the lifters I have are BAM true drop for 59 degree block. No others fit with an outboard link bar.

different brands of lifters are different sizes--Isky being the smallest usually

Mopar Performance solid flat tappets are listed as .0005” undersize.
I have a set from a couple years ago, and some from 20-25 years ago.
They measure .9030-.9032.

I wonder how many countless thousands of motors were built with MP solid lifter cam kits, along with the .903” lifters....... that didn’t have any oil pressure problems.
I know I used many sets of those lifters through the years....... never an issue.

If you look in the Hy Lift Johnson catalog you’ll see that the early Chrysler solids are listed as being .9035-.9040, so the MP lifters are .0005 under the min.

The newer “universal” Chrysler/AMC pushrod oiling hyd lifter is listed as being .9040-.9044.