G grind cam ... solid or hydrolic lifters or does it matter

[jdbubb at verizon.net (Dan Bubb)]

Solid lifter and hydraulic lifter cam lobes are different. A solid lifter cam has a gentle ramp to take up the clearance, then the actual opening ramp which has much higher acceleration. The hydraulic lifter cam doesn't have the gentle ramp since it's already in contact with the lifter. So, if you could swap from solid to hydraulic or vice versa you wouldn't want to without also changing the lifter type.
Having said all that the reality is that the solid lifter cam lobe has a base circle of 1.500" and the hydraulic lifter cam lobe has a base circle around 1.35 although I don't remember the actual number. So, swapping them will either hold the valve open at all times or open the valve half as much as it should and destroy the cam and lifters in short order.
So if your head is hydraulic use a hydraulic cam and if it's solid use a solid cam.

The shims are only for solid lifters.

I think for all practical purposes there isn't much between them as far as performance is concerned. If you're building an 8000 RPM screamer you'd probably want solid lifters, but otherwise......
More maintenance is required for a solid lifter. You need to set the initial clearance and check it every 15,000 miles or something like that. My experience is once set and the engine is broken in it won't need to be reset for a very long time.
Dan


From: "David Brown" <sharpshooter33@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "scirocco scirocco" <scirocco-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 11:30 AM
Subject: G grind cam ... solid or hydrolic lifters or does it matter


8v G grind cam and all cams for that matter. Does any cam require a solid lifter or can you use either?  Also when Timbo was talking about shimming lifters was that just for solid?  

Advantages, disadvantages of both???

Just looking for alittle edumacation never really given cams much thought since I've usually be dealing with just keeping mine running. 8-)

Thanks
David
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