Custum73

When I bought my car my buddy mentioned that the motor has solid lifters, so there is a slight knock in the motor. Reading another forum, I again read solid lifters. What are solid lifters and how do they differ from lifters on cars today?

jrzvette

In an overhead valve engine the cam shaft activates lifters which in turn move the pushrods which move the rocker arms which open and close the valves.

Years ago there where two types of lifters: hydraulic, which were filled with engine oil and were very good for everyday driving. They were also quiet. The other type of lifter was solid (i.e. it did not fill with oil). Solid lifters have a distinctive sound ( a tapping or clicking) and were used on high performance engines. There reason solid lifters were used was because at sustained high RPM's, hydraulic lifters could collapse since they wasn't enough time between cycles for them to fill up with oil.

The big drawback with solid lifters is the valve lash has to be monitored and periodically adjusted.

Fevre

If you have the orig eng and cam in your 73 you do not have solid lifters, they stopped installing solid lifters in vettes in the 72 LT1 eng.