Olds 400E .921" Lifter Source Needed

Discussion in 'The "Other" Bench' started by flynbuick, Jan 11, 2008.

  1. flynbuick

    flynbuick Guest

    Anyone have a source for the 371/394/400E/425 cid Olds .921" 1688 lifter other than the $15 each Mondello stuff?
     
  2. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Jim:

    The earlier ones won't work on the E blocks. They don't have the provision to push oil up through the pushrods to oil the rockers. Those engines used a shaft type rocker system with a different oiling system.

    Last set of .921's I bought were $200, but if you have a good set of used ones, you can get them resurfaced for a lot less. Mondello's not too far out of line, but I wouldn't deal with the West coast guys (Lynn). Joe moved his operation to Crossville, Tennesee, but I don't know if he sells stuff through there or just hooks up with the old operation in CA. Maybe going through him instead of direct with CA would be safer,but probably still expensive. BTR racing (Trovato) in New York or FCR (Terry Fritsch in Nebraska...aka MR Olds on ROP) should be able to help you, but they won't be cheap. Maybe even Dave Smith in California. All are excellent to work with. Might even check with Greg Rollins at Supercars Unlimited in Portland, OR.

    Somebody's making them these days for all the diesel block (DX) race engines, they'll know who.

    I always wondered if you could use the .921 rollers that came in the 307's. Understand they won't hold up in racing conditions, but maybe OK for anything less.
     
  3. Junkman

    Junkman Well-Known Member

    I have wondered about that myself. Using the later 307 roller lifters in a mid '60's 400. The biggest problem would have to be pushrod length. I have a '66 442 ragtop with the original 400 in it that needs some attention from sitting for years. It spins over good,but the distributor is corroded so bad that it is frozen into the block. The original carb opens freely,so no evidence of water inside the engine(good!). I am going to experiment with that-the 307 roller lifters in the 400. I have many parts from an '87 307 "9" engine with only 12,000 miles on it.I saved all of the lifter components/camshaft. My 442 is an automatic car,so cam specs aren't too far off. I am also using the '87 442 200-4R trans in my '66 to replace the Jetaway.That should work good with the 3.31 posi.
     
  4. John Brown

    John Brown On permanant vacation !!

    Jim, I have a buddy who is into old car parts that has 16 nos HL27 GM lifters. I measured them and they are .921 dia. They sound like what you are looking for. Only problem is, he doesn't do internet. He said he would take $150.00 for them. I'll help if I can. :Do No:
     
  5. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    John,

    I'll take them if he doesn't. I may need to change the cam in my 66.

    Still farting with that car, Jim, keep the trailer warmed up.
     
  6. flynbuick

    flynbuick Guest

    Can anyone confirm that is the correct GM lifter number? Since Dave indicated some lifters may have the same bore but a different height I need the verification. If so, Dave or I will do some business with him. Many thanks for the assist John.


    Dave I am doing the same thing here --a cam change. When I went to a 3.55 rear gear from a 3.91 it killed the low rpm range performance. So I am going to the 20-22 cam sold by Mondello or one of the Ultradyne cams. These I know the 20-22 has the lower end performance based on another local car.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 12, 2008
  7. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    I'll see if I can track down that GM part number to see it's OK for the 66-67, or is a 371/394 lifter. Whatever you do, don't throw away the lifters in the engine now. Number them and put them away with the Wolverine cam that's in there. Even if you never use that cam again (don't recall the specs on it), the lifters can be reground for much less than new ones.

    The 20-22 is an excellent cam for that combo. The 18-20 probably isn't much of an improvement over what you currently have, and the 22-25 would be a little too much. The two cams that failed in my Ramrod were Ultradynes, but were made on Comp Cams blanks. Lunati BMII cams work very well in Olds. It's a generic grind used by a lot of others including P.A.W. and Edelbrock. Great low and middle range torque, and very good throttle response.

    Careful of the lift and the pushrod length if you plan to use the stock rockers and pivots.

    Looks like the engine's coming back out of my 66 to tear down the top end and see what's wrong there. Have exhausted about everything else, hate laying over fenders anymore.
     
  8. flynbuick

    flynbuick Guest

    Dave

    With that info I am going with The Mondello.

    I understand that the guy that used to own Ultradyne, Harold, went to Lunati and they have the same grind in the Voodo cam. But I have ridden in a 20-22 powered car and it had that low end grunt which is where you need to be on the street. Thew Wolverine cam I have in there is taller than the 20-22.

    As for the lifters I saw one listing that had a different lifter number for the 66-67 425 cid Olds even though it still had a .921 bore.That is whay verification on the HL 27 number is important. I have a bunch of the cross references but this number does not appear.
     
  9. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Safe move, Jim. Joe moved his operation to Crossville, Tennessee, but I don't know what his connection is to his old company in California that Lynn is running into the ground pissing off everybody it seems one way or another. I'd contact Joe directly, tell him what you're doing and ask him personally what he thinks of that combination and can you buy the parts through him.

    Here's his contact info in Crossville.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. John Brown

    John Brown On permanant vacation !!

    Went back today to see if he dug up any more info on the HL27 lifters which also show the GM long # 5232205.

    Good news / Bad news

    Bad news first. The HL27 must be for shaft type rockers cause there is no hole in the top of the lifter to feed a pushrod/rocker arm.

    The good news. He found several interchanges. Some are old no doubt, no pushrod oiling, others may be current, with the oil hole. You will need to check the lifters to be sure.

    1) HT957 Sealed Power
    2) HT1957 Elgin / Wolverine
    3) VL59 TRW
    4) HTL-123-5 Perfect Circle / NAPA
    5) HL55 Hayden
    6) 99299-16 Crane

    Some of or most of these numbers are likely discontinued, but what you got to lose??

    Here are 8 on e-bay. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=280189857402&rd=1

    Don't know if they are for pushrod oiling or not, or if they are actually for the 65-67 400/425 for sure. You'll have to ask him that question.

    Happy hunting.....
     
  11. John Brown

    John Brown On permanant vacation !!

    Attached Files:

  12. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Thanks, John

    I'm going to go after them. If Jim needs them before I do, I'll pass along to him at the same price.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 19, 2008
  13. flynbuick

    flynbuick Guest

    Dave I will step back and watch.
     
  14. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Did you buy the ones from Mondello? Curious what they look like. I'll hawk this one when it comes toward the end, looks like Weds.

    Funny how these oddball "sets" go. We found numerous sets of 7 pistons and rods in Vance Brady's shed, but never a whole set.

    I have one Harland Sharp roller rocker from a set I sold at Norwalk a few years back. So someone out there has 15 Harland Sharp roller rockers and probably still bad mouthing me. I ran posts in realoldspower on this and said for whoever it was to contact me and I'll send it to them. Never heard a peep.

    There's probably one .921 lifter laying in a box somewhere, same situation.
     
  15. flynbuick

    flynbuick Guest

    In order to get some warranty that I have the correct ones I bought from Kanter but had to pay $144.00. I got VL 59s but no brand that I see.

    Many thanks to John for his efforts and information.
     
  16. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    That's good to know. Didn't know anybody still sold them. I'm investigating getting the ones in there reground to reuse with a new cam. They were NOS GM in the boxes and very little use on them (trying to get this motor straightened out) Had 2 sets of these from an ebay auction a few years back, but when I opened the boxes on the 2nd set, someone had exchanged .842 standard size lifters for them. Not sure how that happened but it was after I got them as they were fine. Strange..........

    Haven't progressed any on that with the frigid weather here right now. Garage is heated and nice, but right now jammed up with the big 4 x 4 in there. Don't like trying to start it in these temps when I leave it outside, and it likes it even less. Use it too infrequently to justify leaving the heater plugged in.

    If the ebay auction gets anywhere near this Kanter price, I'll pass and do same as you.

    Thanks to you and John for the info.
     
  17. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Coupla hours to go, made my final bids and out of my range already. See how high they go. If anything over $125 , it's stupid money again.
     
  18. John Brown

    John Brown On permanant vacation !!

    Last edited: May 12, 2008

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