I have also wondered this... When is the stock lifters not enough?

 

There are so many variables which come into play on this. As long as the internals are decent (stock Ford ones aren't IMO), both style lifters will do the job. The link bar lifters are higher quality to begin with, so they are an obvious upgrade over the oem ones. There are however some nicer oem style lifters which cost quite a bit less than the morel/lunati/comp linkbar lifters - the elgin HL2205s are very nice.

Main thing with the dogbone setup is making sure you have enough clearance to the retainers if you're running a high lift cam. The nice thing about the linkbar lifters is you don't have to worry about wiping out the cam if a pushrod pops out - it takes quite a bit of travel for the lifter to bind with the linkbar. I would say once you go over .600" valve lift, you should consider using linkbar lifters.

 

I would say once you go over .600" valve lift, you should consider using linkbar lifters.

Dont you mean lobe lift. I have .579 on the lobe, but .623 at the valve. The lobe lift it what determines whether the dogbones will lift up from their base, or am I missing something?

 

I'd get a set of Howard's link bars from Woody, IMHO they are top notch for the price (Morels) having them in my Fordstrokers build. Not much more to upgrade from a dog bone setup.
Had dog bones in my old 351w with a comp NX HP 274 hr. shifting 5700 spray, 6100 motor.
Had no probs for over 3 years at the track then driving to mates garage to pull engine lost 2 bones.
Don't know why as ran 10.6 and drove 70 miles home after week before.
Seems like a no brainer for around $330 a set.

 

One other thing to note that wasn't mentioned. The stock style lifters can be replaced with the heads on. I think the link bar lifters require pulling the heads.

I missed a shift once and had a lifter fail, was awfully glad I had the stock style lifters.

 

Why does the head have to come off for link-bar lifters?

 

I did mean .600" at the valve with 1.6 rocker ratio. I didn't calculate what that amounts to at the lobe (which I know is what matters most), but that just happens to be what I'm comfortable with on a stock dogbone/spider setup.

Woody would definitely be the person to know what the proper limit would be.

 

I can't remember seeing any threads about the OEM lifters failing, it's always the dog bones. If it is from the dog bones being thrashed up and down etc. that breaks them, I'm suprised that someone hasn't came up with a billet version of them.

 

why would they? Lets look at costs

100-150 for individual lifters
49 for dogbones and spider tray (if you dont own them)

329 for link bar lifters you can take to any block.

NO brainer

 

I have some videos showing different lifters and what inside them and what makes them different

 

There was a thread on here not long ago where a guy had some new high dollar comp link bar lifters and one of them wouldn't hold oil or something and clattered real loud and Comp determined that one of the lifters was bad and told himto send it back and they'd send him a new one. Stories like that always creep me out becuse it seems to happen all too often with "aftermarket" parts. Who makes the best quality link bar lifters for a street/strip application that sees quite a bit of street duty? I assume if adjusted properly, they are just as quiet as the stockers?

 

How is that any different than ford, gm, toyota and whoever recalling 5 million CARS in a 5 year period?

 

Aren't some heads machined out on the underside to allow lifters to come out? Or are the link bars still too tall even with the notched area? I think Rick Anderson makes a kit that will hold the lifters up if you want to make a cam change without removing the lifters all the way. I assume they would work with link bar lifters. That way you wouldn't have to remove the heads for a cam change.

 

Just fyi for people who are running the stock style lifter - the main two reasons I've seen dog bones pop out or break are due to burrs on the dog bone/lifter sliding surface or insufficient tension from re-using an older/weaker spider tray. There is obviously the other issue of running too much lobe lift or when the lifter looses control and hits the dog bone. Either way, if you see a dog bone actually break, it's usually due to a valvetrain malfunction and very rarely because of a physical problem with the dog bone setup itself.

Woody has built quite a few engines in his day, more than I ever have or will. He's probably seen every type of failure possible with a SBF engine. On the other hand, out of all the cars I've ever built for myself or other people, I've never had a problem with the dog bone setup failing, but maybe that's due to me always taking the time to deburr and double check everything. Most people who run the stock dog bone setup simply don't think twice about re-using the whole thing without checking for wear, even if it has over 100k on it.

 

Like the old saying:
"It's not always the arrow-Sometimes it's the Indian"

 

link bar lifters woody put in my 363

 

They look so much simpler than the spyder/dog bone set-up. Did you get all of the ignition bugs worked out of the 363?

 

Does it matter at all if the link is in the back? Rear facing I guess as it were...

 

Functionally? No, but may run into some clearance issues on some blocks if you turn them around

 

Guy putting it together turned them around because he thought it looked better that way (like that should be the determining factor...especially since there is an intake going on top of them). Luckily no clearance issues. They sent it out for a valve train simulation test and spun it up to about 4k with zero issues.

I sure hope those N heads don't let me down. One thing to do something different...another to do something different and look dumb. Real reason was b/c they were fully assembled and free.

Thanks again Woody for always donating your time. I need to get signed up and start pursuing your video library.