What are the down side, if any, of having one of these installed.
I know what they're good for, I'll be installing one on my 383 stroker. I'll be probably be revving to 6400-6600rpm and with a high lift cam. So, I think it will be the right thing to do.

My question is about what kind of extra activity can I expect? I'm sure there might be a trade off that comes with the benefits it provides to your valvetrain.
Anybody has had any bad experience they'd like to share?

 

Everybody just thinks of it as good insurance. You necessarily don't need it, but it would be good to look into with a high reving engine. I have one I'll be putting on this winter.

 

Pretty much no downside to my knowledge...just a little dent in the wallet. If you run the Comp R lifters, I doubt you'll need the Hydra-Rev though.

 

Hydra Rev kits are made for stock lifters only, also.

 

Really thats funny because I have both comp r lifters and a hydra rev kit. Comp-R's are identical to the stock lifter body, I believe the only difference is internal. What the Hydra rev does is put a pre-load on the lifter body itself and not the plunger. Thus keeping the valvetrain more stable at high RPM's. There is really no down side to installing one, besides the money factor And getting the damn thing in there

 

Sorry I mislead you... hydraulic lifters only.

 

I have read a few posts on this board of members actually loosing HP from the Rev kit. They dyno'd the car with it on and then with it off and they made something like 20-25 more rwhp with it off. Can't remember who it was tho.

 

What hyd lifter you run has no bearing on wether you should run a rev kit or not.

 

I never understood exactly what the hydra rev kit actually does. Can someone explain???

 

What are the black pieces for in this pic? http://www.airflowresearch.com/pages/images/hydra1.jpg
Whatever they are, I don't have them.

 

i think they replace the stock lifter guides.

 

Absolutely wrong. The Comp R lifters are not as heavy as stock ones, and they tolerate high rpms better, therefore requiring less spring pressure to control their motions. Remember, HydraRev is the equivalent of adding valvespring pressure, except that HydraRev does not put that pressure on the lifter plunger. If your valvesprings can correctly control the valvetrain without collapsing the lifters, you don't need HydraRev.

 

I was looking at the AFR website, and for the SBC hydra-rev kits, they have 2 kinds. One will not work with Crane or Lunatic lifters. What does it mean? Different caps?
I'm planning on using Comp R' lifters anyway.
Thanks for the good responses so far.

http://www.airflowresearch.com/pages/hydra_rev.htm

-Goose

 

If you have valve float and switch from a stock lifter to R Series, you are still most likelly going to have valve float.

You are theorizing that if you have valve float and switch from stock to R lifters you wont have valve float since your lifters are a minute amount lighter now?

Avoiding valve float is still 99% based on running the correct valvesprings, and a rev kit will help this if you run a spring that is a little too weak.

 

I think you are misunderstanding what I'm saying. What I did say, is that the Comp R lifters allow you better control of the lifters at the same valvespring pressure, which is true. You can also run more valvespring pressure with the Comp R vs. stock, which would usually eliminate the need for the HydraRev.