I was wondering if I could up grade my hydraukic lifters to roller lifters?

 

Is there a company that can supply these for an EA71?

As with most anything, if you gots the $$$$, someone can make it for you. You need to determine if you are just . To use roller lifters, you kinda need a roller cam, that is a ramp designed to work with roller lifters. A flat tappet cam will ruin roller lifters in short order as a flat tappet cam is ground as to rotate the lifters to equalize wear. Now, since the main benefit to a roller cam is the aggressive ramp profile it allows you to run, you need to determine if your engine can make use of this benefit. To realize this, you are probably at minimum looking at lightweight, oversize valve train, lots of porting, and carb/exhaust improvements. Lots of additional cost just for a roller lifter!

 

Mark

Cheers.

 

I want to do as mch as I can.

 

I cam grind is on the cards so I can have it suited to the new followers.

 

I intend to inspect and modify every part of the engine as best as possible for my needs.

 

I guess it is prudent to start at the camshaft and lifters since these will determine other parameters.

I don't have the cash to have things made for me but I may be able to justify the expense if there are 'off the shelf' lifters available.

Another thing that i didnt see mentioned on this topic was that roller lifters need to be held in place from rotating by some sort of mechanism With small block chevy factory rollers that is called a spider. The roller lifters have a flat spot on the sides so that they physically can not rotate while going up and down. If the motor was originally a flat tappet then they would require special roller lifters to work called retrofit rollers. They have a small bar connecting two lifters together to keep them from rotating.

 

Picture of the spider in the lifter valley of a sbc

 

 

 

 

Picture of retrofit roller lifters with the bar connecting the two keeping them from spinning.

 

Basically i dont think it is feasible at all. It would be a small fortune to have a company design and make all the specialized parts to make it work in our motors and there would be such a limited market for it (maybe two or three people) that it wouldnt justify the huge costs of producing it. Good old supply and demand.

Good point on the connectors. I didn't want to go too indepth about every nuance. *IF* I were to be looking at something like this, I would find a lifter that had the closest dimension to the stock lifter, in terms of length + the additional length for the connector. Because the lifter would likely come from an american pushrod engine, the diameter would most likely be larger. You would have to line bore/gun drill the case and install bushings to make these work, if the case can even be drilled. By the way, I didn't think the EA71 came with hydraulic lifters? If it didn't, you would have to run solid roller lifters as the case would not be drilled for hydraulic ones. Then, you are still stuck with having to get a cam ground for a roller lifter. I have a feeling your being generous thinking 2 or 3 people would want them. Too much other work would need to be done to justify (In my mind) the extreme cost associated with this conversion, which would add even more costs. I would actually be much cheaper to turbo/standalone EFI the motor, than try and do the roller setup. and you would end up, most likely, with more power. Now, I have never been one to let a crazy idea stand in the way of me spending way too much money on an idea that has a more cost effective solution, just for the point of being "different". So basically, I'm just sayin'..........

They did make an EA71 in '87 or '88 with hydro lifters as I had one. I parted it for the pistons which are now in my EA81. My question would be why? Although this might be possible it would seem that a hydro EA71 with rebuilt stock lifters and a Delta cam with some head work would make more power for less $$$. The rest of the effort could be spent on a custom fuel system or a nice carb and exhaust.

Cool.

 

Thanks for the feed back guys.

 

Guess I'll be sticking with what iv'e got.

 

Cheers

 

Dirk.