Bushed lifter bore question

In a BB, how are solid lifters lubricated when the bores are bushed ?

Drill a small hole in the bushing.
Doug

If they're already installed, is splash enough ?

As doug said, i had my machinist put .030” holes on the bushings for a little oiling. But mine is a race application only, so it mostly gets splash oiling. I would never depend on only a .030” hole for any street application , but thats just me. I could barely see tha .030” holes. I actually thought he forgot to drill them until i looked real good for them. Thats how small they are.

Is it only race? Any street or extented idling at all?

Solid lifters or solid roller lifters?
If solid roller they should have a oil hole in the oil gallery into the bushing, .030 to .090 depending on the shop doing the work If not rollers no need for any other oiling
I need to go pickup my 400 block now after having bushings installed in it to seal the oil galleys up at max lift with the Comp Cams solid roller lifters set up for pushrod oiling, that shop put a .060 oil hole in the bushings I had assembled the motor and primed it and found out it only had 20 Lbs. of oil pressure with the comp lifters, I swapped them to a set of regular Cranes solid rollers I had in the cabinet and had zero oil pressure with them
This motor has a set of Jesel paired shaft rockers hence the need for pushrod oiling
Onwards and upwards

These are solid lifters, race only. I gave them a lifter dia. to hone to, I'm going to measure the bores and I hope I have at least .0015" clearance, .002" would be better.

sounds like you're having fun Cab.

thanks

My 505 is bushed with BHJ bushings and was honed to size for the Comp-AMC EDM lifters.
I did nitride the cam as well.
Think like a .030 hole to lube the lifter.

It's been running since 2012 with a .600 flat tappet since then.

I have over 5,000 street miles, highway, idling in 90*+ weather.
I weekly bracket race with it as well.
And something around 100 passes going 11.'0s @ 120-121

Have fun !

I've been bushing blocks since the early 80's..BHJ fixture..I run cast bushings and I've used splash only on the street and also a .030 to .050 hole no real difference in wear with the cast..
In the late 70's I tried bronze for the half dozen or so engines with splash only and when it came to freshen there were some that needed to be replaced..
Mickey at BHJ told me to try his cast bushings and I've never used bronze after that...very good service life with cast on the street..

I wonder why a cast bushing would be recommended. cheaper ? doesn't matter anyway, if it works, you're good. proper clearance is probably the main thing. thanks all

I switched bronze bushing manufacturers, ( got away from BHJ) and they look much much better long term, and hone nicer. Just my experience.

With the amount of oil being slung around in an engine, I wouldn't add 16 .030 oil leaks unless I had pushrods oiling the top end. .030 is a huge hole when there's 60 or 70 PSI behind it. I oiled a complete top end with bushed rockers at 7400 through a .045 jet with a minimum amount of wear showing. Bushed lifter bores and oil to the cam bearings restricted as well. Hundreds of runs at 7400. My goal was to minimize the amount of oil flying around doing nothing but getting aerated and get it onto the crank.

IF you're talking about CAST IRON then the answer is simple. The carbon flakes in the cast iron provide some lubrication.

However, just about any metal and most ceramics can be cast so it's just an assumption that you're talking about cast iron.

R.

I ran undrilled bronze bushings on the street w/ solid flat-tappet lifters and saw definite wear patterns and extra clearance in the bushings. The late Dan Costello lent me a fixture to add holes to them, so I added .125" holes before I switched to solid roller lifters.

Everyone who hears the size of those holes always acts shocked and tells me they're way too big. Well, they're a He11uva lot smaller than the size of the galley opening in an unbushed lifter bore, and the engine had no oil pressure issues on the dyno either at idle or WOT up to 7200 RPM.

Solid flat tappets in a race only application?

If the clearance is right....... You're good without the holes.

I think you mean graphite flakes not carbon

One of the reasons for bushings is to eliminate those huge oil leaks. I didn't have oil pressure issues either, looking at the gauge. But my rod bearings sure appreciated it when I started fixing the internal leaks.

I understood the oil control benefits. My concern was the bushing wear from street use w/ splash-only lubrication. If I bush my other block (and I'd like to), I won't go as big on the oil feed holes... probably .060".

I picked up my 400 block from the machine shop in Vancouver, WA this afternoon, they put lifter bushings in it with .060 holes in them ,according to them It is to late to unload it tonight due to cold, ice in the drive way and my old cautious age
I'll unload it tomorrow morning and get it into the assembly room and take a good hard look at it after cleaning it thoroughly and putting it on a engine stand, again.
Hopefully the low oil pressure issue is gone and it lubricates through the pushrods properly with better oil pressure
More info on this later when I'm done

If I remember correctly, the Direct Connection oil galley tube kit for a small block didn't say anything about holes for added oiling. Just peening the tube in each lifter bore on one side. Apparently with solid lifters, there is enough "splash" to provide enough lube. (I did it once - never again!)

Cam/lifter lubrication would be my biggest concern. But a little bit more through a small lube hole couldn't hurt with a flat tappet.

Am I missing something?
The entire gallery on each bank is oiled from one end. The tappets communicate oil flow through to the gallery on the other side, and to the next tappet.
Unless all the bushings are drilled on both sides, only the first tappet in each gallery will get any oil.

I've seen C932 (SAE 660) bronze recommended, is there a better choice?

The lifter galley is drilled at a tangent with a large hole, unless you do something like 1" fuel lifter bushings, there's still an uninterrupted oil path.

The bushings we use are some ampco material, 15 I think. S/F....Ken M

Makes more sense, thanks.