Reply to "The Amazing 351C 4V"

Richard I don't have a hydraulic lifter recommendation I can make at the moment with complete assurance, and I don't want to make one without complete assurance. My old stand-bys from 20 years ago are no longer available.

What I can tell you, you want to find a lifter that is a true "anti-pump-up" design (high bleed rate) that requires adjustable valve train, held together with a nice, sturdy circlip as opposed to the thin wire clips holding most hydraulic lifters together. You want top grade metallurgy, heat treating and surface finishing. You want an internal metering assembly that passes very little oil to the valve gear.

If you were using solid lifters I'd have a recommendation for you because a friend on the Cleveland forum just recently did some phoning around and found a Crower lifter manufactured by Johnson (the manufacturer of the original Boss 351 lifters) using the original Boss 351 style metering assembly, and having the metallurgy, heat treating & finish we're looking for.

I'll ask around and see if I get a "good" reply. In the mean time, if you find anything, share your findings with us.

Crower has a new hydraulic lifter that they advertise as being very close to a solid lifter. But they offer no information on their web site, they just say to phone their tech line. This sounds like one of those limited plunger travel designs. Lunati's lifters may be worth investigating too. One word of caution however, some lifter designs that work fine installed in small block chevys & Windsors don't work well in the Cleveland from the perspective of oil metering.

-G