Anybody ever gone back to a hydraulic cam from a solid roller? How much noise does the solid roller contribute?

The purpose of the hydraulic cam is to reduce the noise from the valve train. Solid cams are noisy and they have to be adjusted.I use the hydraulic cam on my car and its quite and you don't have to adjust the lifters. graemlins/beers.gif

I don't agree that is "purpose" of a hydralic cam. But I DO agree that it is quieter....

Had a solid cam for many years never had to adjust it. The only reason you would have to adjust would be to compensate for wear (not going to last much longer if this is the case) or the rocker nuts are backing off.

Originally posted by Steve S:
Had a solid cam for many years never had to adjust it. The only reason you would have to adjust would be to compensate for wear (not going to last much longer if this is the case) or the rocker nuts are backing off. Or the studs are pulling out! :mad:
(Never run solids without screw in studs)
I have had several different solid cams, and every time I go to adjust them, no adjustment is needed graemlins/thumbsup.gif

I've got a solid in mine, thinking about it I only have 3000 miles on my big block and really only have had to do any lash adjustments to it once since it was a new engine.

I like the sound of the solid, sounds very correct for the car. Kind of sewing machine like, but with a muscle car raspy idle. The hyd would be mostly silent, maybe some noise from the roller rockers but I would think it would lose some of that trademark sound in my opinion.

I will probably never go back to a hyd unless I wanted to do a 'correct' restoration on it. But not bloody likely :D

If you like the "charm" of solids but with the maintenance free of hydraulics, try Rhoads hydraulic lifters. The have the clackety sound with hydraulic function and is how they essentially advertise them... and also pick up some upperend RPM's. I think Crane has something called "fast bleed" that are similar???

I have them in my 67SS. I wasn't really trying for this and ended up with them almost by accident. I had a sticky lifter when I bought the car so when I changed out the intake I decided to replace the lifters. Asked around at work about Rhoads as I saw them in Summit and the guy I was talking to about them (gear head from the 60's)gave me the thumbs up so I bought them. Put them in and adjusted as per the instructions with them and clackety-clack. I thought I did something wrong so I used other instructions (both of them on this web site) and set them again. Again clackety-clack. Getting frustrated I set them the otherway as described on here and again... clackety clack. Car ran good but I could here the valve train pretty good. I posted a question on this board and somebody answered that "Rhoads lifters clack". After that I did some research and pulled the advertisement that came in the box with the lifters and it confirmed that Rhoads lifters are designed to sound like like solids. I have pulled into cruizes with this car and people have asked me if I have solids.

Robert