I bought a 914 a few months ago and went to do a valve adjustment recently since the engine was a little noisy for my taste. Well all the valves are set at .006 but I still had my doubts so I removed one pushrod from each side and had a look inside and sure enough, I have hydraulic lifters. Lovely!!! I guess the previous owner was adjusting them as solids. I also have solid pushrods. WTF!! Even lovelier!!!



I know I need to switch back to hydraulic pushrods but I am interested in knowing if theres a difference in the expansion rate of solid and hydro pushrods? I've put well over 2k miles on this engine with no problems and it runs hard, just a bit noisy is all. The valve lash has been set at .006 for the last 8 years the previous owner had it and l am thinking the lifters might be damaged also from being run this way?

What size is the motor?
What makes you believe you have hydraulic lifters?
What makes you believe you have the wrong pushrods?

Pictures would help here...

Rich

It's a 1974 2.0 with 40 webers, Bursch exhaust, and a Scat cam(according to the previous owner). The lifters have the small center clip in the middle. I looked up some pictures in the ratwell site to make sure and I have solid pushrods.


http://www.ratwell.com/technical/HydraulicLifters.html

The answer is....

You may have hydraulic lifters or you may have solid lifters....

Webcam, Eaton and others use/used a 3 piece "solid" lifter.

That's a cylindrical iron lifter body with a hardened pushrod cup held in place with an e-ring. And, they can rattle.

Per the solid pushrods, the rockers are designed to be lubed by oil fed through the pushrod...

Without the pushrod oil, you would be eating the rocker arms and shafts. Check again.

Great info, I will have to look into it by removing the lifters and looking at them. Here's what I've done so far.

I tried adjusting the valves by turning them in 1 1/2 turns after contact with the valve but the engine wouldn't even start. This was done about 6 hours after the engine was shut off. I know, I know, I am supposed to wait overnight but I was in a time crunch at the shop and figured the lifters would collapse. NOT!! I know that I have a circlip in the middle of the lifter but I had never heard of 3 piece solid lifters till now.

After this failed attempt, I tried adjusting the valves to .002 thinking that once the engine warmed up the lifters would adjust since they are hydraulic. This did not work either because after 15 mins of driving the engine loses power, the valves are way too tight...

Anyway thanks for the info Kwales...

Below is a pic of the car, since everyones always saying a thread is useless without pics





Click to view attachment

It sounds like you have solid lifters in which case the .006 adjustment is a better value and it should run a lot better.

Run solid lifters at .002 and you will burn a valve.

That's a nice looking car. Might be a good idea to keep your wrenches in the cute little plastic tool box in your wife's closet.

Thanks!!!!

Took it apart and this is what was inside. Three piece solids. The circlip is larger and a bit different than some of the hydros I have built. It's very difficult to get a good look inside through the pushrod tube though.