It used to be easy to simply grab an OEM solid lifter when degreeing in a flat tappet cam. Now I find myself at a loss with the new (to me) roller lifter cams. I'm too cheap to buy some aftermarket solid roller lifter so I got 2 Sealed Power OEM hydraulic replacements from a big box parts store. What's the procedure for converting these hydraulics into solids; just Mig weld the plungers so they won't collapse? Fill the interior with epoxy? Any and all solutions will be considered.
Yep. or epoxy as was suggested or welding the plunger would also work. We actually used to convert hydraulics but machining a solid plug to fill the hole and holding it in with the original or original type of snap ring. Poor mans solids I guess.
I've seen people just remove the circlip, remove upper cup, put circlip back in, set inverted cup atop the rim formed by circlip. Solid concentric surface...reassemble properly when done. Note that this way you do not need to buy or alter anything...you just flip a part, then reinstall it when you install lifter for actual use. Innards will be similar to pic, generally, and innards of a roller hydraulic are the same as non-roller ones.
Won't you get different info using a solid lifter on a roller cam? The roller lifter would follow the cam in a different place then the solid lifter.
The point here is to use the right lifter, but to immobilize the inner piston to get a solid reading on indicator. A hydraulic lifter is a bit springy when not running as it is not pressurized, hence the practice of rendering it solid for test purposes...this can be easily accomplished on most types so that the normal lifter is used for testing and restored to normal for use afterwards.
Thanks for explaining things so well, Bruce. I bought 2 EXTRA hyd roller lifters just to degree in the cam. I will tack the piston to the body using the MIG process.
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