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EA81s, which have solid lifters, which have hydraulic?


Guest Brettm57
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Guest Brettm57

I've been studying my service manuals some and there seems to be a lot of variations of the EA81 with either solid or hydraulic lifters. If I'm reading it right, in some years they put solid lifters with manual trannys and hydraulic lifters with automatics. Huh? I'm hoping it's less confusing than it appears. Also, can a hydraulic lifter engine be converted to solids? I'm still hashing over my hatch bracket racer idea, and I'm thinking I would rather have solid lifters, unless there is some reason I don't know about that I shouldn't. Like maybe the hydraulic lifter engines are better for other reasons. Thanks.

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Guest McBrat

ea81 w/hydraulic lifters came in the following vehicles:

 

83-84 ea81T motor

any 84 with an auto tranny (maybe 83 but less likely)

85-87 Brats

85-89 Hatch (with ea81)

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Guest OH Noah

At least some '83 models with auto trannies did have hydraulic lifters, but it may have only been the Wagon and/or 4wd models.

 

As for converting, I don't think it'd be worth it. The hydraulic lifter engines have different camshafts, so you'd have to switch cams too. That requires splitting the crankcase. I believe you'd also need to use the rocker assemblies from a solid lifter engine.

 

If you were already going to change cams, then you might consider solid lifters, but I'm not sure if the lifter bores are the same size, etc.

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Guest Mykeys Toy

It is my understanding that all EA81 auto tranny cars after 84 had Hyd lifters. I can't say for the cam but I know of at least one person with a warmed up cam with more lift and such running these heads milled with EA71 pistons and has no problems with clearance. So I would think you could realistically just swap heads and maybe get a little more lift with a stock cam.

 

Mike

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