Cam Roddery
WHEN it comes to camshafts, hot rodders have all sorts of options (no big secret). Cams range from mild hydraulic lifter RV-style jobs all the way up to take-no-prisoners mechanical rollers with all sorts of stops in between. Now it should come as no surprise to anyone reading this that you can buy cams and lifters in two basic formats – roller and flat-faced. In turn, each format can be of the mechanical (solid) or hydraulic variety. Fair enough. But this is about flat tappets. So what makes up a flat tappet lifter? Typically, they’re hollow steel and incorporate a steel pushrodoperating cup. The cup is fastened via a steel-retaining ring. Some types of lifters incorporate an oil-metering valve to control the oil feed to the pushrods. Hydraulic lifters incorporate a self-adjusting mechanism. Here, pressurized oil flows into the lifter through one opening and enters the hollow body of the plunger through another. Solid lifters don’t have this mechanism and as a result, lash clearance is set at the valve tip. Hydraulic lifters mandate preload (which is basically distance between the retaining snap ring and the plunger seat when the valve is closed). Once you set hydraulic lifters no further maintenance is needed
