I have two slant sixes both with solid lifters i want to change to hyd. lifters. I was wondering if this can be done these engines one is a 78 and the other is an 80. Any help would be nice.

Yes, it can be done but in general, the solid lifter set-up is better in terms of performance and reliability.
DD

I will be following this thread as I am curious about the pros and cons of both; mostly because I don't know much about either!

Solid lifter advantages:

•Much greater selection of camshafts

•Much less intricate top-end/valvetrain oiling, fewer small passages to get starved for oil on cold startup and/or clogged in the long run.

•Solid lifters cannot fail, they can only get worn out (and that happens only after a lot of miles or in the event of some catastrophic problem inside the engine. Hydraulic lifters can fail

Hydraulic lifter advantage:

•You never have to adjust your tappet clearance. *yawn*

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

If you really want to do a hydraulic cam, I have an Ultradyne that has never been installed. It is a relatively mild one, under .500" lift so I will never use it. PM me if you are interested, I will be going down to my shop Wednesday.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

The non-adjustable rocker arms used wuth the Hyd. system is the show stopper for me.
Anytime you have non-adjustable rocker arms, you have to spend a lot of extra time and attention during cylinder head set-up in order to ensure that you get all the valve stem lengths the same. (even lifter pre-load)
When you get some wear in the valve train, you are stuck with no easy way to adjust the extra clearance out. (outside of pulling the head doing a valve job)
DD

Backing up to the orginal question: The solid lifter cam would have to be swapped out with a hydraulic lifter cam, then the hydraulic lifters installed, along with hydraulic lifter rocker arms and rocker arm shaft.

As for DD's last post, if you tell you machine shop that you MUST have the top of all the valves level level after a valve grind, AND they can do that, then you should be good to go. I have an $800 oversize-valve-head because of bad machine work during the process of getting it right.

Troy

Yes, a hydraulic cam requires the whole hydraulic valve train. Rockers, shaft, pushrods, and lifters. I would also definitely run a high volume oil pump. This motor oils the lifters from the top down. There also used to be a full grooved rear cam bearing too, but the hydraulic cam that I have has the rear journal fully grooved instead.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Aw crap, I gotta go give my machinist in Woodburn a whole load of crap since one valve stem was under by .001.... (no wonder I have to lash a little tighter on cylinder number 3...)


-D.Idiot

Even valve stem heights are only important with the Hyd. set-up, solid lifter engines with adjustable rocker arms don't care.
DD

Are you saying that every slant from 1981 to 1987 should have a high volume oil pump put in?

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82 D150 Slant6 Shorty
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/658846

IIRC, the hydro motors got a thick rotor pump to start with.

If it is fine now I wouldn't bother. If I were changing a pump anyway I would do the high volume thing.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Is this a worth while investment in any HP build?

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'72 Duster 198 stock cam, 3:23's Hookers on jack stands for 8 years in the driveway
'79 Maxivan 360 Offy Qjet Comp RV cam/rusting in the driveway.
93 D350 160HP Cummins Auto Dually Clubcab needs a injector pump
2005 Golden Couch Buick

No. High-volume pumps can cause more problems than they solve. Search the board for details, but in a nutshell, a carefully-built regular pump generally provides all the volume needed, and a high-volume pump puts much more drag on the relatively fragile cam worm to oil pump drive pinion junction, which can frag the pinion.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

That was what I was thinking. I put a HV on my 360 and later found out it wasn't necessary.

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'72 Duster 198 stock cam, 3:23's Hookers on jack stands for 8 years in the driveway
'79 Maxivan 360 Offy Qjet Comp RV cam/rusting in the driveway.
93 D350 160HP Cummins Auto Dually Clubcab needs a injector pump
2005 Golden Couch Buick