Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Lifters ?

What lifters were used on a 261 camshaft? Were they the milk can type or the newer flat top type? Were they solid lifters or hyd.? Lots of questions any answers?

US 261s used solids, Canadian Pontiac 261s used hydraulic.
They all used the low style.
All US blocks starting in 1958 are drilled for hydraulic lifters if you decide to use them.

Dear Ryan;

I have found 261s with the 'milk can' type, but they may have put there by a Rebuilder & not GM.

They will work but the pushrods are a different lenght.

Better to use the low solids & not hydraulic.

Good luck, John M., #3370....

Depends on the year of the block.

If you look at the Chevrolet parts and Accesories book, you will find that the 54-55 used a different lifter than the later engines. It doesn't say, but i believe these were the "milk can" type. Should have one groove around body.
The 56-62 engines used the shorter style that most of us are used to.

I would also advise you to stay with solids. The 235/261 engines often have bleed out problems at sustained rpms when using hydros. If you do decide to switch to hydos, then you will want to change the camshaft also.

I hate to hijack a threat but, Gerahead mentioned the problem with bleed out problems with hydraulic lifters. Is there a cure for this? other than switching to solids.

Thanks George

The cure is to seal up all the air bleed leaks in the oil lines and make sure the lifters fit right in the bores. I think there is also a way to add a bleed hole in the top of the lifter to bleed any air out of it. The lifters bleed down because of air getting in the system.

Wouldn't that require a lot of machine work to fit each lifter to It's bore? Plus the cost of 'oversize' lifters too. I agree it can be done. But doesn't the time/costs involved prohibit it??

Keeping a 'close eye' on cam/lifter wear via frequent valve adjustments is what keeps hot rod engines alive.

What is to be gained by making the "juice" ones work??

John M., #3370.....

Guru Tom Langdon told me when I was considering my new cam purchase the big problem is with the oil pump pick up and cavitation causing air feeding into the lifters. This, along with having to grind an air bleed passage in the lifters, convinced me that solid lifters adjusted a couple of times a year would be a more sensable choice, for me.

The only fool proof way is to switch to solids.

As has been mentioned, the oiling system as a whole is a bit flawed is several places which can cause too much air getting into the oil and colapsing the lifters. Making sure the line that goes from the pump to the block isn't leaking is the first thing to check. After that it's all band-aids, like trying to figure out which lifter it is and cutting a small groove on the side of it to try and relieve some of the air, which in turn drops the oil pressure available and is not capable of any consistancy. You don't want to do it to all of them. A friend of mine has this problem, and he switched over to Quaker State "Hi Milage" oil and hasn't seen the problem since. Not entirely sure that's it, or if it is a coinsidence, since the problem isn't very predictable in the first place.