Solid lifter to hyd

[Cattail]

I recently purchased a 1969 Mustang 428CJ car.The engine has been set up for solid lifters and I want to put the engine back stock. What do I need to do and check to get back to hyd set up.

[Excaliber]

For solids there is a restrictor in the oil galley under the intake at the rear of the engine. It unscrews and you can change the size of the orifice of the restrictor. You will need a larger orifice size for hydro's.

[Keithc8]

The 428 CJ blocks did not have a restrictor the from the factory. The person that built the engine last may have installed restrictors in the cross over passages. Other than that you should be able install a new hydraulic flat tappet camshaft and lifters. You may want to check the spring pressures and shoot for about 120 on the seat and about 300 open. I have some nice grinds that we use in our restoration engines that work well. Remember all of the break in procedures for the new camshaft.

Thanks, Keith Craft

[LMH]

A little backwards question but what do you do to install solid lifters on an FE originally equipped with hyd lifters? Just the oil restriction plug?
Larry

[Barry_R]

Different opiniions on that. You can add restrictions. Or you can just drop them in.

[Keithc8]

As Barry said you can do either. What makes the difference is how much oil the engine puts up stairs. You can run the oil pump with a drill and see how much oil you get up stairs. You can do this with the intake of and the valve train on. If you are getting to much then you may have to restrict up stairs. More than likely you will need at least a .090 restrictor on both sides and we have to go down to a .060 sometimes if getting to much up stairs. It depends on the block and the lifters used.


Thanks, Keith

[patrickt]

LMH, I had the same discussion with my engine builder five years ago. With an iron 428 block, Edelbrock aluminum heads, Erson roller rockers, high volume pump and an old school solid flat tappet cam, we tapped and plugged the side galleys and restricted the heads down to .060 -- although a lot of guys on the FE forum leave the galley open with solids. Whichever way you go, it only takes your builder five minutes to do it.