Trying to improve lowend/vaccum has led me to these. From what I have heard they work well but might lose a couple hp up top.

My question is how will the noise they make affect the knock sensor? I have heard they are rather noisy and am afraid that so much timing will be pulled my motor will run poorly. If I get these installed what are my options for dealing with the noise? Would running a non-synth or full synth make a difference? What about doing away with the km all together?

Anybody on the board using these if so how do you like them? Are they annoying inside the car or is this drowned out by exhaust etc. I heard the noise dissipates after a certain rpm.

 

I hadthem in a small block 383 engine. i felt they never really pumped up to full lift and performed OKAY. They def. get the vacuum up but sound just like a solid lifter and that does not go away til high rpm(either that or exhaust covered it up). in my opinion stick with a regular hyd. roller. The engine that they were in ended up coming apart as a result of a flattened cam lobe. not sure if waht cause it, but can gaurantee the lifter on that lobe did not come out lookin pretty.

 

I used them a long time ago. They are not worth the hassle and noise and damage.

 

Could you elaborate on the damage?

 

Destroyed cams. and beat up push rods.

 

I had a set;they lasted just fine. However the noise was ridiculous. At least 3x solid lifter noise.I tried adjusting them down until it wouldn't run right,so it wasn't because they were loose.

 

I have the hydraulic roller lifters now. They are noisy, but nothing so loud as to set off a knock sensor. They just always sound like they need to be adjusted.

I didn't want a vacuum pump and my compression wasn't high enough for the old cam I was running, so to ensure I had enough vaccum with this new cam, I got some rhodes and tried them. No regrets, but I couldn't tell you a before/after story.

 

I used them and couldnt figure out why I had a constant lifter tick... after i readjusted them twice i lost 2 cam lobes. Use a regular lifter cause rhoads is absolutely crap unless u want a fresh motor to sound like it has 200K on it.

 

Call me crazy but wouldn't these be a tuning nightmare also for cold starts and different seasons given that the oil's viscosity changes with temperature??

 

I had them in a 355 in a 3rd Gen (flat tappet cam). The engine went around 100,000 miles with a comp 280 Magnum cam, S/R Torquer heads, hard push rods with guide plates. At the end the lifters and cam looked excellent, performance had been good for the life of the engine although there was some noise as others stated. My valve keepers were beat to hell, I had two bad exhaust valves and two bad intake valves. At cold temps they didn't bleed off as good as advertised, at redline (5800RPM) the engine pulled fine.

I would not use them again. I only did in this application because they were cheaper than a soft converter for the 700R4.