At one time in my life I remember hearing about the use of Chevy lifters in our Buicks. The main difference being the height of the pushrod cup in the lifter. Is this doable and has anyone here had experience with it? Reason for asking is, you can still purchase Delphi lifters with the hardened base for the Chevy motors. Thanks Brent
There is 2 major difference.....the cup height difference which just requires new pushrods to make the difference up.......but depending on how the cam was cut......aka base circle change, or block and or heads being cut......custom length might be required any ways.........so no big deal. The thing that is harder to verify especially since the lifters are not in hand is if the oil band stays inside the lifter bore......if it pops out you will hemeriage oil. You might get the measurement of the top of the band and mark it on your lifters to verify
They work fine, but I have not seen any 817 series lifters on the shelf at my wholesale house lately with the hardened foot. I was under the impression that delphi discontinued all flat tappet lifter production. No problem with the oil bands, just get the right length pushrod and your good to go. JW
Summit claims to have them available for the Chevrolet's. Has anyone found a reputable shop that can resurface the base of lifters? Every TBI small block Chevy out there has the Delphi hard base lifters in it, if we can get them resurfaced it may be a source for a good lifter. Thanks Brent
My question is if we resurface the lifter foot, we also grind the hardened surface away? At that point is the Delphi’s advantage ground away, and it now is like brand x or y ?
On the Delphi lifters theres a definitive separate piece of the lifter "base" or "foot" that is the actual hardened surface of the lifter, IIRC its Stellite or something like that. You can see the separate "foot" in this pic of Chevy Delphi lifters
Here's what I found available. I ordered a set from Summit. I'll buy a couple more sets if they are correct. Thanks Brent
They arrived today, Delphi, gm lifters with the hardened base, made in USA. I'm going to buy a couple more sets.
I had zero luck using chebby solid roller lifters. They were not fully shrouded like TA's. Hemmoraged oil big time.
This might of interest. The gentleman claims all these lifters are now made by 1 company and the issue is the quality of grind.
^^^ Powell Machine has had a great series of videos on the subject. Great to see someone do the research on what the real cam failure causes are. I liked the Elikliv video microscope they used.... I'm gonna have to get one of those.
That lifter face looks downright scarey under that microscope, his look much better. Years ago I bought a set of Crower or Crane Chevy lifters (flat hydraulic) for my 350, figured they move Chevy parts quicker than Buick, the Chevy lifters had rust on ‘em! Guess Chevy parts sit on the shelf too!
