Yes I did. The Johnson lifter push rod cup is .230" deeper than the Morels necessitating a longer push rod. My push rods were 8.725" long, I went to an 8.950" push rod.
Larry, is this like cooking chicken--no cross contamination, or should I be watching the for sale forum for your add selling a set of used Morels Rollers?
Hey Larry, I've got a question for you about the Morel Lifters: Did you have any oil pressure issues with the Morel rollers or was it just the solid lifter sound? I can't imagine they would cause any pressure problems but since the bearings are fed thru the lifter galley I was just wondering if pressure could be affected...
No oil pressure problems, the engine just got noisy when hot. I did notice a slight reduction in oil pressure with the Johnsons, but it was only 1-2 psi at idle. I attribute that to the faster refresh rate of these lifters. JW said it was possible. No big deal to me.
Philip66, I'm still using the Morels in mine. I have no problem with oil pressure problem but they do make noise under the hood. But understand I went thru 48 lifters to find 16 that were over sized to fit my bores. So doing all that work has paid off very nicely in having very little hemorrhage at the lifter. All this was done before the Johnsons were available. So far so good, but I haven't run them real hard yet., time will tell. See other threads where I have talked about taking them apart for cleaning and inspection. That was a treat to say the least! What's your experience with the Morels? Fernando
Thanks Larry, Fernando. I bought an engine with Morel rollers about 5 years ago. It's a .30 over with domed Venolia pistons at 13.5:1, Stage 2 SE, roller cam with .632 lift, SP intake. It made 605hp and 605 ft/lbs. when I dyno'd it before installing it. I ran it for a couple years and it was nice and quiet with 70 psi cold and 20-25 hot idle with Brad Penn half and half. Half 20W50 and half 10W30. All was well until I blew a head gasket. Tore it down to find that it was an O-ringed block with Fel-Pro blues. Also found that the camshaft had been walking enough to obliterate the numbers on the back end of the cam. It beat against the rear freeze plugs. The wrong bumper had been installed. I sent the cam to Scott Brown to cam doctor it and see if he would run it and he said it was fine. We got rid of the O-rings in the block, used Fel Pro 1125's. Installed the cam bumper correctly. Went to a little stiffer valve spring because the dyno had shown the power was dropping like a rock instead of tapering down. Put in new rods and mains. Old ones were fine but had been washed down with an antifreeze milk shake. Lol. After getting it all back together and running I find that my cold oil pressure is the same...65-70. But when it gets hot the idle oil pressure drops down to about 8psi and it sounds like it's a solid lifter motor. I haven't really spent any time diagnosing it. I just parked the car and haven't started it since. Fernando I remember reading those threads when you posted about talking your lifter apart. Here's some pics of zero-deck with a nice dome sticking out, and the old cam bumper.
I can't say not to worry about it because I still worry about mine. I assume you installed the lifter back in the same hole they came out off, same block etc and you still have good oil pressure! Then it doesn't make sense why now they are noisy. Could trash had gotten inside them? Shoot! anything is possible. I would tell you to take them apart and clean them but I just assume take a sharp object in an eye than do all that is involved. I do have a question for you, how hard (rpm) did you spin them when you ran them. Because my motor will go to 7K and has been already to 65K but I get nervous that the lifter will not put up with that. I'm giving them plenty of oil pressure and volume, hopefully they won't let go but is like playing Russian Roulette. The lifters is the only thing we worry about in my motor. We have done everything by Mike's recommendation with valve spring pressure and keeping tight lifter bore clearances, and a few other tricks from previous experience in general. But man, my cojones are in my throat every time I nail it. If a lifter wheel or a shaft decides it don't want to be there, it can cost me a very expensive motor and two years of my life. Fernando
Fernando, All lifters went back in the same holes they came out of. I hadn't really thought about trash getting in until I wrote my post last night. Kinda obvious, isn't it?!?! All that anti-freeze mixed with oil going in every hole and orifice... Head gasket blew at @ 1/8 mile during a full 1/4 run. I got out of it immediately but like a dummy I drove it all the way to the pits and even into the trailer. We definitely didn't clean out the lifters during the rebuild, we didn't even try. When I had it on the dyno it revved soooo easy to 7000 but the power was done by 6600-6700 so we didn't go over 6700 after that. I tried to keep my shift points at 6400-6500. I've only put about 20-25 miles on it since the rebuild, and no track time. Haven't revved it up past 4K either. Seems like the power is there but it just doesn't sound right. Add that to a noticeable drop in oil pressure and I'm probably looking at tearing it down again. I'd rather go back in it in the shop than scatter it all over the asphalt somewhere! As crazy as this might sound the cost of doing an engine is almost a secondary concern. You nailed the first concern (in my book anyway) and that's the two years of life, racing, sleeping, and enjoying the car that we lose waiting for an engine. Father Time is batting a thousand so losing any time waiting really starts to hurt. That's one of the reasons I bought a Racing Junk engine that was already done. Hindsight being what it is, I should have ordered exactly what I wanted from JW or TA or Bobb or Gary or Mike Phillips (he was still taking orders back then). It might have stayed together longer, or maybe not. I'm hard on everything... My dad had gotten more excited about that engine when I found it than I did. He even kicked in a couple grand and went with me to get it. We lost him last year to a massive stroke so I'm really thankful to have those memories even if this engine just keeps costing me.
When I had the Morels they would go from noisy to quiet in the blink of an eye, no reason they just did Morels are garbage
Could be the radius on the lifter body bottom causing that 1-2 lbs oil bleed-off compared to the full length body Morels. I know those Chevy style solids some one thought would work didn't. Bled oil like a stuck pig. Maybe 15-20 lbs at best. Had to go back to the full body TA's.
I think the oil just moves in and out of them faster. The pressure loss is very small. My idle oil pressure in gear is always 20 psi or more.
Good oil pressure is comforting! Some blending and massaging on my cover, pump and block oil passages made my oil pressure gauge think it's a tach.
