solid lifter source 0,826" lightweight

[german4inline]

Guys,

for my small classic Renault engine I intend to make new lightweight valve lifters because the stock ones aren´t available any more. The original ones are hollow however, but made out of cast and have a bottom slide thickness of unbelievable 6,5 mm and are 35 gr in weight. Underneath the pushrod calotte a wall thickness of 2,5 mm should be enough. That seems not so bad for US V8 standards, but for my small 1,7 L it´s far from optimized. The cast is outside hardened and has a wall thickness at the outer diameter of 2 mm what makes it heavy together with the bottom slide. Now I thought about making them new by myself whats a big effort with turning the billet, the inside shape has to be eroded, then case hardening and finally the surface has to be hard turned whilst making sure that the sliding face is convex for 15 µm , very special requirements.

Before I start to operate this way, I would ask if anyone knows if there are solid lightweight lifters whereever with 21 mm Dia. (0,826”) and I could abstain from making my own ones. Weight should be 25-30gr gr or less. Surly some shops will offer custom made, but in reality no one will make 8 or 16 ones for an crazy German. I hope for a serial engine (maybe bike) what is 21 mm or around that. I have to rebore my lifter holes anyway to get a slightly different angle to accept the pushrod inclination with high lift, so I can match the lifter diameter anyway.

[pamotorman]

I remember years ago reading about a test where they made light weight titanium lifters with a hardened face insert and I made no difference in the valve float RPMs. what about centerless grinding down a chevy lifter to .826

[german4inline]

Question is how much the weight dropped compared to before. The lifters are one of several activities what I do/did such as valve /spring/retainers /pushrods decreasing in weight. To grind existing lifters down might be a risk because you remove the hardened surface whilst they should be ductile inside. To make lifters lightweight is very tricky to avoid hardening through due to the small wall thickness. You have first to make them relativly thick to make sure they will be just hard on the surface. Then you have to grind them down to leave a very thin, anyway hard surface with a ductile, relativly soft surface at the inside to prevent them from cracking. But it has to be a fine tuned process what might need making some dummy parts to check the hardnesses. Since you don´t know the hardness over the CSA of an existing lifter, it´s dangerous to grind it down simply. Thats the reason why lots of aftermarket lifters are relativly heavy or could be at least much lighter if the manufacturer would make such effort to bring down the wall thickness, but less customers ask for it. I have some INA bucket lifters for a 4 valve engine what have a wall thickness of less than 1 mm and they work perfect.

[Warp Speed]

Have added 60g to a lifter with no difference in valvetrain control to 9k+ rpms.

[Keith Morganstein]

. Since you don´t know the hardness over the CSA of an existing lifter, it´s dangerous to grind it down simply. Thats the reason why lots of aftermarket lifters are relativly heavy or could be at least much lighter if the manufacturer would make such effort to bring down the wall thickness, but less customers ask for it.

You are makng incorrect assumptions.

There are plenty of lightweight lifters available. Some are made from tool steel. (Ferrea LF1002)

I disagree that it "dangerous" to centerless grind a .842" OD to .826"
That is a "wall" thickness reduction of just .008"

[pamotorman]

. Since you don´t know the hardness over the CSA of an existing lifter, it´s dangerous to grind it down simply. Thats the reason why lots of aftermarket lifters are relativly heavy or could be at least much lighter if the manufacturer would make such effort to bring down the wall thickness, but less customers ask for it.

You are makng incorrect assumptions.

There are plenty of lightweight lifters available. Some are made from tool steel. (Ferrea LF1002)

I disagree that it "dangerous" to centerless grind a .842" OD to .826"
That is a "wall" thickness reduction of just .008"

you can do a Rockwell hardness test before and after grinding to see if there is any reduction in hardness

[hoffman900]

I'd check with them, but we've used Precision Products Performance tool steel lifters. Great product. Check with them to see what sizes they have available 'off the shelf'.

[german4inline]

I´m worried about on US engines, there´s not that big focus on finding the last gramm on valvetrain parts and surely not possible with relativly huge parts. With roller lifters , high loads can be compensated easier than without. If you´ve a look on solid lifter buckets f.instance from INA Schäffler, which are common on 4 valve race engines you´ll get a good imagination of what I´m looking for. The lifter should be in the 25-30 gr range compared to the stock ones with 35. That means some 100 more peak rpms possible with the same springs and less loads when idling or town driving without need to increase the springs. Maybe someone knows classic bike pushrod engines on which someone did optimize with the same considerations as me. I don´t look for them only due to the smaller weight, but I need new ones anyway and stock aren´t available any more, so I try to source lightweights BTW.

[hoffman900]

Weight doesn't matter as much on the pushrod side of the valvetrain. Everything on the valve side from starting from the rocker pivot matters a lot.

[german4inline]

You´re right, I save on the valve assembly already 50 gr, pushrod 10 gr, rocker about 15 gr. Since I need new lifters anyway, I won´t give away that benefit, a penny saved is one got.....

[german4inline]

Guys,
I´ve now finished my valve lifters by myself. If someone is interested, the weight now is 20 gr ( stock is 37 gr) Can´t hardly believe that there are existing those parts anywhere on the globe which are comparable weight. Additionaly, they are 2 mm bigger ( 21 mm) in Dia to accept a bigger cam. Self designed / turned, inner shape milled on the 5 axis (by a friend), hardend and tempered, ground and nitrided. Wall thickness is 0,75 mm (0,03 Inch). I asked some well reputed engine specialists if they would do them for me, nobody dared to do that. So do it yourself….

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[cjperformance]

Very nice!