Choosing a Lifter
Printed From: CorrectCraftFan.com
Category: Repairs and Maintenance
Forum Name: Engine Repair
Forum Discription: Engine problems and solutions
URL: http://www.CorrectCraftFan.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51056
Printed Date: November-22-2024 at 9:37am
Topic: Choosing a Lifter
Posted By: NeilMcG
Subject: Choosing a Lifter
Date Posted: March-08-2023 at 9:20am
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1980 PCM RH 351 (FLAT TAPPET) Good Morning!  I noticed many different lifter offerings for this engine, even within the same brand. The product descriptions, however show no discernible differences among any of them. Couldn't find a LIFTERS 101 course online, so yet again I seek your guidance. What should I look for? Thank you ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Boater Tip #22- Bringing a Keg onto a ski boat is probably not the best of ideas (ask me how I know.) |
Replies:
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: March-08-2023 at 12:39pm
Good afternoon  Just a regular replacement lifter for a 351w since it's a regular stock rebuild you're doing.
A couple of part numbers you could use are Sealed Power HT900 Melling JB900 |
Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-09-2023 at 12:58am
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The best lifters sold in the USA Today are from Topline/Hylift. This is the old Sealed Power Plant and they provide a good quality lifter. Sealed Power and Melling both sell this brand in their boxes today. You want to avoid the lifters from Mexico and China. I sure most of them work but you are looking to get 16 good lifters for your engine start up and the Topline/ Johnson Hylift are the best available. Eaton also made a high quality lifter but I heard they switched all production over to Roller Lifters? I bought a set of Topline lifers a couple weeks ago from EBay of all places and they were exactly as advertised and are installed and running today with no problems. Hope this helps. ------------- |
Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-09-2023 at 9:26am
Thanks Ken !
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KENO wrote:Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-09-2023 at 9:28am
Yeah, it helps a lot actually. Thank you!
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Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-09-2023 at 12:39pm
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Just to clarify my note. Topline, Johnson and Hylift are all the same product, Topline owns the old Johnson Hylift lifter manufacturer formerly owned by Sealed Power. If you can find lifters available with he 1/8” thick hard plate on the foot mod the lifter those would be the Eaton design and are first quality product also. ------------- |
Posted By: mosinee77
Date Posted: March-09-2023 at 1:36pm
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Buy the best quality lifters that you can find. Have had good luck with Howards, Johnson, etc. The cheaper lifters have had some quality issues as of late. Lifters supplied by Comp Cams have been pretty sketchy as of late. Proper break-in of the cam is a big deal now, and hard to pinpoint the issues on flat tappet cams, but bad new lifters have flattened quite a few.
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Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-09-2023 at 5:48pm
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I forgot about the specialty lifters like Howards. They cost much more but offer very high quality. ------------- |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 7:56am
So I guess that the translation of your clarification would be that Topline, Johnson, Hylift, Sealed power and Melling are all the same lifters in different packaging? |
Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 10:54am
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Yep, Topline bought the plant and is selling to other companies. The plant was the Johnson Hylift plant. Sealed Power owned it but shut it down when the price of lifters fell to under $1 each in the late 1990’s. It sat idle for several years before Topline purchased it and got it running again, by then lifter prices had come up substantially and Topline was able to make money on the company. While the plant sat idle homeless people had moved in, anything not locked down was stolen and taken to the scrap dealer for quick cash. This included many key parts to the lifter manufacturing machines. It took over a year after purchase for Topline to be able to replace those key parts for the tooling machines., Parts that probably did not fetch $200 at the scrap dealer cost hundreds of thousands to replace. Sad but true fact.
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Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 1:23pm
So a lifter is a lifter is a lifter? |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 3:28pm
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In this highly incestuous industry of auto parts, where you might be married to your cousin, and your uncle might be your father, maybe this once upon a time was right, but these days you see parts like an HT900 Ford lifter from Sealed Power in a box that says that it's hecko'd in Mexico. You can find old versions of the same lifter from Sealed Power that were made in this country, but I'd guess that was before they were sold off, one of the handful of times they've been sold to a parent company who's owned by some bigger conglomerate with facilities all over the world.
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Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 3:30pm
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Not at all, there are imports, Moresa out of Mexico and several from China. The Howards are what most racers buy but they are very expensive for a regular rebuild. I think Topline offers the best of what is left of manufacturing for standard duty lifters. ------------- |
Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 6:04pm
Looks like I have a nomination for top line. Do I have a second? |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 8:04pm
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Sure, why not (or one of their relatives) Johnson Hy'Lift part number is A-0900
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Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-10-2023 at 8:10pm
Sold! |
Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-14-2023 at 1:33pm
Well it appears this item no longer is made, it looks like Melling may be the best choice. But I'm back to where I started beacuse they all seem to be the same but with significantly different costs. For example, Summit carries three separate Melling lifters; 2 of which are identical and only 0.001 thou different from the 3rd (OD.) Perhaps there are different alloys that could account for the difference in cost, and perhaps the noise level as well. Meling's JB-900 seems like the best option. Opinions welcome. Thanks ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boaters Tip #8 - Buy a case of Excedrine after taking ownership of a boat. |
Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-14-2023 at 5:03pm
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The Sealed Power part #. HT900 might pop up if you search. Maybe it will show country of origin so you can choose. Normally there is the standard lifter, Lifter sold as a single, in a 16 pack, 4 pack or bulk, 144 lifters in a flat. There used to be a performance version which was anti pump up also. Might account for the part numbers you are finding. P; ------------- |
Posted By: KENO
Date Posted: March-15-2023 at 7:52am
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It seems like somebody early on in this thread (post #2)said Mellings or Sealed Power were good choices and gave some part numbers
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Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-15-2023 at 9:22am
Hmm...now who could have that been ?? |
Posted By: MrMcD
Date Posted: March-15-2023 at 3:14pm
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Here you go, old school Sealed Power lifters. That box is from the 1990's so those are old Sealed Power Manufactured lifters. HT900 https://www.ebay.com/itm/314277811976?epid=169387634&hash=item492c6ad708:g:FWIAAOSwQxNjnKtp&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4LIvhwPztZmkVl1yj75QPmc3Ccq0Iw8e1P62RvDjCcmlwpMIb5WVoSUvRyOqpvjg491AxBv0IBg36yY1dyBeOcLAaZEzL9V6PbUyhmyS7cjq8b5dwftRT%2Bc6RCQfnmUOP74%2BLGxuhKtBmf7VCenncfEOVGwRU2zm61pZw1cd2k5NYkA8QGGlPx1D0E5fnaQAEdTWkC0xZ4Dkxqdon6uTv8xEmcSnslMJf5f3LAGMpFj%2B32K9Gt%2F1Pm9Yttk3ljIytRqYOfbP5Z4jiVPr8vKmq%2F3ReQtFc0VH4xVEZlFfpc5F%7Ctkp%3ABFBMtPv-6txh See if you can get a picture to be sure they have not been exposed to rust on the lifters from moisture in the air. ------------- |
Posted By: NeilMcG
Date Posted: March-15-2023 at 8:51pm
Absolutely will do. Thank you! |