Originally Posted By: Warren grimm
but going through the charts and all the chatter on line, very little distinction is made between hydraulic and solid liter assemblies. The most common mention is either 11.263 or 11.406 but never associating them with the lifter style and/or year.


That's because the transition period was over from a stock part perspective. The early 50's saw a lot of change in the Stovebolt lifter department:

with a variety of push-rods to go along with it. Chevy used the 3836260 push rod on both the '53 and '54 power-glide cars - and then standardized on the part in '55 for both solid and hydraulic lifters. It was used through '62.

The only other lifter change occurred in '58:

when the solid lifters were relieved to allow for a new top-end oiling system for the rocker arms - as documented here at the:1954 Advanced Design site. But the change did not affect lifter height or pushrod length.