Anyone here ever try this? Seems possible but seeing some snags.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/gm-r...ock-40121.html

 

You mean the v6 lifter thing? There's some stuff in this thread:

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...ght=v6+lifters

Personally, I would go for a good flat tappet rather than piece a this-that-and-other setup together. Either that or get a retro roller setup.

 

Well Im satisifed with my hyrdraulic flat tappet. But this gets me curious and thought about trying it on a scrap yeard motor just for the hell of it.

 

It just won't go away, will it....

Yeah it's been tried. No it didn't work.

One REAL GOOD REASON not to mindlessly jump off that 30-story building just because the guy in front of you in line just did, is that the holes for the spider go RIGHT DIRECTLY INTO the oil feed passage to the main, rod and cam bearings. If there's no cast-in boss, any hole you drill, will go through that thin casting right there, and hit oil.

Now I don't know about you; but there are certain parts of a motor that I tend not to put at any risk of failure; and that might just be one of them.

 

Did you try it and it not work? Nothing wrong with tinkering with things in the spare time. Doesnt hurt anyone.

 

No; As I might have hinted broadly at already, I have enough "Been There Done That" to see the folly of it without having to try it. I know the fire will burn my fingers without sticking my hand in fire every time I see it.

Actually, someone else on this board did it. He was all proud of the JBWeld job he did on the spider. Sure enough, it got loose somehow, and one of the lifters came out of its dogbone and turned in its bore, and the entire cam lobe that got instantly turned into shrapnel, pretty much put an end to his crank and main bearings. Seems like it was a somewhat expensive aftermarket crank.

I think he got out of the motor building hobby after that.

Some things aren't worth the extra cost of cheapness.

 

Ok so thats one single incident. I see mention of tack weld to hold the studs in place. If thats the only situation you mention I dont see how this would be the end all of it. But rather just another way of learning from mistakes.

 

I think it's a big "is the risk worth the reward" and do the "ends justify the means" case. Especially when there are some very nice flat tappets on the market.

 

I guess you can say that about every other DIY job too. Dont do anymore Lt1 conversions anymore because the risk of something failing. I like my Hydraulic flat tappet from Comp Cams and probably wouldnt change it for the simple fact why should I. Im just trying to find out why exactly why it wouldnt work and everyones negativity towards it.

 

Whether it works or not isn't the question. The question is "why"?

 

I was actually thinking of doing it so that you don't have to break in the cam and risk wiping some lobes.

 

I thought the point of every DIY job is to save money. So is that not enough of a reason?

 

How much money does it save?

 

If you get the parts at a yard Im thinking a decent amount of dough. Arent hydraulic retro rollers like $450?

 

1. If you half-*** it, by holding the spider in with JB Weld, and it it fails, it destroys the cam and lifter, and the crank and bearings to boot.

2. If you try to do it "right", by drilling and tapping the place where the spider bolts down, you drill RIGHT DIRECTLY INTO the passage that oils the main, rod, & cam bearings. And the casting is rather thin there, like less than a quarter inch. Which then means that if a screw breaks off or backs out, or the casting cracks, or anything else AT ALL goes wrong, you just sprung a massive internal oil leak at the most critical point inside the engine. And then of course, it will do #1 as well, because the spider will no longer be retained.

So there you go. There's exactly why it wouldnt work and everyones negativity towards it.

Let's see... how much money are we trying to save? I forgot... How lucky are you feeling today, again?

I can think of exactly one way to do it that might work without an almost inevitable catastrophic meltdown, but it won't be cheap; probably not much cheaper than just biting off on the original design lifters.

 

You have to compare apples with apples. If you want to save money with used parts, you could buy a set of used retrofit lifters just as easily.

 

Couldnt you just tap very shallow and weld a stud into place. For me this isnt a big deal since my childhood friend has experience mig welding and would cost nothing. I would think this wouldnt affect block integrity and keep the stud in place. I havent seen to many used retro rollers for sale but if you know of some let me know. Obviously you want it to work so mentioning JB weld and other band aids would not be the way to do it. I dont see how luck has anything to do with it since I could get hit by a truck crossing the street.

 

Hey, go for it. It's your stuff. If you've already made up your mind to do it and how you're going to accomplish it, you don't need permission or approval or anything else from any of us. Forgive me for even thinking that you were looking for information or the results of experience or anything useful or valuable like that. I'll just keep the realities of the situation to myself.

I have nothing further to add.

 

Why give up now? You have a chance to poke holes in it again.

 

I've seen some success stories and some failures here with that operation.
I have a set of the V6 lifters that I'm going to try out someday on a block that I have that has a history of eating flat tappet cams.
I bought a set of these to simplify the job.
If you're careful, you can make it work, as others have.
Do some searches and you'll find some threads on the topic and some do's and don'ts.

 

Why would I want to do that? After all, it's not my car, and I won't suffer a bit when it eats the big one.

Let us know how it works out, after it gets a few thousand miles on it.

 

If you really want to do this, instead of drilling and welding into the oil passages to mount the spider, there's a set of perfectly good drain holes drilled down both sides that could be tapped to mount something.

 

Well I probably wont do this anytime soon unless i get bored and run across a free block which is not unusual around here. Thanks for the true responses and I see even though it isnt a difficult project it is still risky. But it does look very possible.