Best hydraulic roller lifters
 

Down to the last few choices for my new engine. Looking for the best hydraulic roller lifters to use on a street/strip engine....emphasis on street. Cam will be a Butler ram air 4 roller and car will see 2-3k miles/year. My initial thought is Johnsons. A few hundred bucks in price is not an issue. Reliability is the most important issue. Thanks in advance.

Ask Butler what they are recommending these days!Their cam.Tom

Butler just put out a pretty detailed bulletin on these. "Best" at least according to their recent information has more to do with your lifter bore height and cam profile of your specific block vs a generic statement of "x part is the best."

They all have slightly differing oil band heights and you want the highest quality lifter that matches what your block wants for oil band height.

https://butlerperformance.com/n-1349...formation.html

If the Johnsons are the needed fit for your application, that's what I'd go with.

The best lifter today is the one that doesn't fail ;-)


Butler still loving and using Johnsons last I checked

I appreciate the article...lots of good information.

That was done back a ways.I would call and talk to David Butler for the latest info.Tom

I haven’t heard anything bad about the Comp Cams Evolution roller lifters

https://www.compcams.com/evolution-r...set-of-16.html

The issue im told with the Evolutions is you have to follow the directions to the T!I have a set in the engine I just took off the run stand.My builder did not read the directions and did it the way he has always done it and had issues.Finally read the directions and came in perfect and had no issue on the break in.Had a couple hours on the run stand but max extended time on the stand was 3000 RPMs.David is very high on them.FWIW,Tom

One of our board members had issues on the dyno with them.He just pulled them and went to solid rollers.Tom

i have the newer comp 857's. they are a little noisy when fully heat-soaked. i accept that. hot rods are noisy. if it blows up, i will fix it ...

I have Johnson JLI-211-OPR lifters in my new street engine. I found they made noise when I set them at 1/2 turn and at 3/4 turn they are much quieter. As stated on the Butler website there are three versions of the Johnson Hyd Rollers. The variations are the amount of pre-set travel, standard, reduced travel and short travel recommended for performance street use. Mine are the reduced travel so far I am happy with them. The more I drive the car the better they get.

Do you know what the issues were? I’m one that follows instructions to the letter to eliminate variables if there is an issue

I'd get the short travel Johnsons, bottom out the plungers when you have it on the engine stand, then back them up 1/2 a turn. Even better bottom them out with a .010" feeler gauge between the rocker and valve and done.

Another option that I prefer here is to go with Crower HIPPO solid roller lifters and lash them at .003". I've had perfect success with the "hybrid" set-up, but you do need to check the lash about once every 2 or 3 years or if you start to get a little noise in between. I screwed up my last 455 build and went with PRW stainless steel roller rockers. It was fine at first, then started getting noisy. I ran the valves couple of times and the noise returned.

Turns out the PRW's were grinding up the pins and rollers and putting a LOT Of metal into my engine. By the time I figured it out a few had .015-.018" play between the rollers and pins...YIKES!

I scrapped them and went with Crower Enduros and never had another issue with it, and didn't have to lash the valves either, just checked them a couple of times in the next 10 years and nothing moved at all......

I still use the Johnson's here without complaint on engines I build. Even the new crate engine I bought from Blueprint has Johnsons in it. However they have gotten very expensive. The current set I bought through Paul that come straight from Johnson (not reboxed garbage from fleabay) for a SBC were $1140. This was just a few months ago. Shortly after that purchase Paul informed me they jacked the price up again to to something ridiculous like $1600 if I remember correctly. Who says SBC's are cheap to build LOL.

That price has forced me to look at other options like the evolutions that are being used on the next build I'm doing.

Thanks - that’s disheartening.

My set are dead quiet.Tom

Crower solid roller lifters with hippo and Johnson short travel lifters here. Been good so far.

Oh and make sure if you do go with the
Johnson HL short travel lifters
That you set your lash very specific with
a feeler gauge as Cliff has mentioned. When I bough mine years ago the Rep was very insistent that I pay attention to sitting the lash. I sold that engine tears and I told new owner not to touch the lash. He has put lots
Of miles on it and no issues to date. Buy the Johnsons. Your engine will thank you.

4,000 miles on Johnson's no issues here....

I have Johnson reduced travel. Can't comment on longevity but they are super quiet.