Alternative to dog bones in lifter valley? Updated with some carnage
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A couple pics comparing. The arrows are showing the vertical support of whichever lifter alignment apparatus you use. Trays fit lifters tighter and also the green arrow shows the flat sides of the lifter is “guided” the entire way up at Max lift, where the dog bone serves solely as alignment but doesn’t offer support past that. Is it important? Hell if I know. But I do like the idea of one tray capturing 4 lifters.
Also I set it in and turned over the engine to make sure the trays wouldn’t be “lifted” due to lobe lift, and at .377 lift from the lobe they did not come off the block. These trays feel very sturdy, if you’ve ever held an LS1 lifter tray and felt the rigidity, these feel stiffer.
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Also I set it in and turned over the engine to make sure the trays wouldn’t be “lifted” due to lobe lift, and at .377 lift from the lobe they did not come off the block. These trays feel very sturdy, if you’ve ever held an LS1 lifter tray and felt the rigidity, these feel stiffer.
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I like those a lot, thanks for the closer pics.
Have you seen the high end lifters, made to guide themselves in the lifter bore? I found them a while back from searching for these lifters, it was a big name company too. The ones I'm referring to are way shorter than typical roller lifters, they barely come out of the lifter bore. The have a protruding thin side piece which matches a machined guide slot in the lifter bores. They are far lighter which is their main purpose. I didn't see any reference to find pricing, but they were made for most Fords as I read it described, with varying diameters etc. That's what I would hunt for in any performance engine beyond street rpm's.
Have you seen the high end lifters, made to guide themselves in the lifter bore? I found them a while back from searching for these lifters, it was a big name company too. The ones I'm referring to are way shorter than typical roller lifters, they barely come out of the lifter bore. The have a protruding thin side piece which matches a machined guide slot in the lifter bores. They are far lighter which is their main purpose. I didn't see any reference to find pricing, but they were made for most Fords as I read it described, with varying diameters etc. That's what I would hunt for in any performance engine beyond street rpm's.
A few companys make them the more main stream one is Jesel they are called
Key Way Lifters. We exclusively use Key Way Lifters in all our endurance race engines.
For the average guy they are extremely expensive. Could be as much as $2000-$3000.00 just for the lifters. Then you have to buy the bushings that they ride in, and then pay a shop to machine your lifter bores and install the bushings. They are more for a pro level competition type environment.
We have plenty of sportsman stuff running link bar lifters with alot of success. Alot of Times the lifter is a casualty of an unstable or out of control valve train.
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Key Way Lifters. We exclusively use Key Way Lifters in all our endurance race engines.
For the average guy they are extremely expensive. Could be as much as $2000-$3000.00 just for the lifters. Then you have to buy the bushings that they ride in, and then pay a shop to machine your lifter bores and install the bushings. They are more for a pro level competition type environment.
We have plenty of sportsman stuff running link bar lifters with alot of success. Alot of Times the lifter is a casualty of an unstable or out of control valve train.
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The version you have there are the revised service replacements and are beefier than the first design. They also changed the plastic formulation. I pulled a few of these out of explorer crate engines Ford was selling off after 2001. The older ones were a brownish color and also weighed less.Also I set it in and turned over the engine to make sure the trays wouldn’t be “lifted” due to lobe lift, and at .377 lift from the lobe they did not come off the block. These trays feel very sturdy, if you’ve ever held an LS1 lifter tray and felt the rigidity, these feel stiffer.
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They feel very beefy and several places have extra ribbing built in for sturdiness.
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Might that be the part number variation? The two parts that come up have different prefixes, the
F77Z-6K564-AA
still comes up with choices, the older one doesn't.
No problem. Yeah unfortunately even for me buying our used lifters at a great deal, buying bushings at cost and me doing the machine work I have about $1,200 in the project. They are really nice lifters though.
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Thats the correct cataloged number but the revision code changed around 98. I'm not sure if it just was superceded and the number never changed afterwards.
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Can you tell any difference between yours and the one pictured above?
That part number is the one that is not available on eBay right now, the one with the "F77Z" is.
I would guess they are going by the number off of he box, which again, mine had the "Z" number on the box too..... I will compare what I have later and let you know
OK, so comparing the guides that came out of my 98 explorer motor vs the new OEM ones I recently purchased the ONLY difference I can see ( eyeballing it NO calipers here) is the vertical wall on both sides that is in the middle of the guide seems to be an RCH thicker...... Other than that No difference I can see.....
My old and new seem to be the same color ( black if not a very dark grey) and not brown as referenced above in this post....
And the old ones, from the 98 engine, also have the F77E numbering.....
My old and new seem to be the same color ( black if not a very dark grey) and not brown as referenced above in this post....
And the old ones, from the 98 engine, also have the F77E numbering.....
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