Engine: Educate me about lifter bore wear

[JohnMSeymour]

I have owned 3 cars with 170 flathead engines. What symtoms show when you have lifter bore wear?

[RadioRoy]

Mine had low oil pressure.

I tried installing the oil restrictor that the piston ring makers sold (quite a detective-like search in the old daze before the Internet) but it did not seem to help.

I don't remember it knocking or anything. I was just freaked out by the low oil pressure and figured the engine would blow up once we got far enough away from home.

[Mike Van Veghten]

First question - What brought you to the thought...about...lifer bore wear ?

With somewhat clean oil, lifter bore wear should be very minimal, unless you have 400,000 miles on the engine, and don't change the oil very often.

I doubt, since there is very little side load on either I-6 or V-8 lifters, that they'd make any noise that normal human ears could detect. One nice thing with the Stude lifters, the pushrod pocket/socket, is at the bottom of the lifter, rather than the top like the "Big Three" (and others) use, which might help create a little side load if any machining was off a little.

Again...why this thought ?

Mike

[doofus]

Decades ago i built a 185 that had worn lifter bores. still had decent oil pressure,especially after a oil pump kit was installed. the oil passage restricter blocks almost all the oil to the lifters. pressure is probably being lost through worn cam bearings or mains. lots of old cars were patched up with rings and inserts and driven for years with no thought given to mains or cam bearings. engine quiet, drive it and enjoy the ride. Luck Doofus

[jackb]

then of course, and I've mentioned this a1000 times here, straight from my hometown 50+ years a Stude dealer.......... Studebaker created STP for the very reason your little 6 requires for oil pressure. Does anyone know why the 185 wasn't continued and a replacement for the 170 ?

[skyway]

? Because they thought the power increase from the OHV made up the difference & got them back to a shorter stroke?

[StudeRich]

That would have been a Plan if the change was for 1961, but WHY the Gutless 1959 to 1960 170 Flatheads?
For SOME reason, they Never Ran like a '47-'54.

[skyway]

…also just to screw with us 60 years later😬

[PackardV8]

Every Champion I've ever torn down, including my first 1956 Flight Hawk 185" in 1963, showed some lifter bore wear. some excessive. Trucks are usually the worst.

Mike is thinking of his experiences with OHV8s. Because the '39-'60 Champion engine valve lifters are only .625" diameter and with flatheads, all the valve lift must be produced at the lifter, without the benefit of the 1.5 multiplication of the OHV rockers, the unit side loading is greater than on OHV8s and thus more lifter bore wear.

Before 1950 Studebaker Engineering was well aware of the Champon lifter bore wear problem, but rather than fix it, just had the Parts Department stock .001" and .005" oversize lifters and a reamer to install them.

Today, the oversize lifters are NLA and there's no easy or inexpensive problem for the worn Champion lifter bores.

jack vines

[JohnMSeymour]

First question - What brought you to the thought...about...lifer bore wear ?

With somewhat clean oil, lifter bore wear should be very minimal, unless you have 400,000 miles on the engine, and don't change the oil very often.

I doubt, since there is very little side load on either I-6 or V-8 lifters, that they'd make any noise that normal human ears could detect. One nice thing with the Stude lifters, the pushrod pocket/socket, is at the bottom of the lifter, rather than the top like the "Big Three" (and others) use, which might help create a little side load if any machining was off a little.

Again...why this thought ?

Mike

I have heard the subject come up now and then and it got me thinking. I am a curious guy. My first studebaker ( 1950 Champion) started getting low oil pressure after putting 70,000 miles on it in the late seventies. That was, of course, before the internet and all the info available on it.