A few times on here I've seen people refer to making a stock hydraulic lifter solid for valvetrain mock up purposes. After much searching I can only find people just mentioning this, not how to do it. If anyone could give me some instructions on how to accomplish this that would be great.

 

I just took mine apart, put the spring in the bottom, cut down a stud that goes between the spring and lifter cup to hold the lifter cup in place while the epoxy drys and filled it with epoxy.

 

Remove the lock ring and disassemble the lifter. In the bottom is a spring that allows the plunger to move giving the lifter its "cushion"
Take a 3/8" bolt and cut the head off of it, and then cut the threads down to about the length of the spring.
Insert this threaded "rod" into the center of the spring and reassemble the lifter...you most likely will not be able to push it down to get the lock ring back in at this point...but will give you an idea of how much more to cut or grind off the threaded rod part.
Take it back apart and remove some more length of the threaded rod insert...try to put back together...
You want it so that the length allows you to just get the snap/lock ring back in place and NO more..otherwise you will have defeated the purpose...
Once together, you should not be able to push the lifter plunger down at all.