VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 Lifter noise

The 235 with 1300 miles on her purrs like a kitten while cool but as she gets warmer and at higher speeds the lifter nock starts.
Any thoughts on adjustments as its hard to determine where the nock comes from.

My mechanic that did the transmission says I should have "solid lifters" installed instead.

Thoughts anyone?

First a Power Glide sounds crappy with solid lifters. Because the engine speed is not tied to the road speed the engine sounds disconected, whch it is.
To find the culprit get the engine hot and remove the rocker arm cover and press down hard on the adjusting screw end of each rocker arm with the engine running. When you get to the culprit pressing down on the rocker arm will force the oil out of the lifter quickly. The remove the push rod and examine the bottom tip of it. The round bottom should have a grove cut in it. This grove allows the air to vent out of the little bleed hole on top of the lifter. Not necessary to remove the side cover unless you decide to replace the lifter with a different one. If you have all new lifters they can be problem matic. If it were mine I would reinstall one of the original lifters you removed from the engine...if you saved them. Or find a new Genuine Chevrolet lifter for a 1950-1952 engine and install it.
I may have one such new lifter.

Thanks I'll see what I can find out maybe this weekend?

The only way I ultimately fixed a similar problem was to bite the bullet and find NOS hydraulic lifters. They are just BETTER than the modern replacements that are available. For instance, we noticed much larger passages for oil to keep them pumped up versus the replacement repop lifters. Which matters more at higher rpm and warm oil. Once I put the expensive NOS lifters in, all was quiet and good.

You can find them on ebay but usually a couple at a time....just keep adding them up.

Will do what am I looking for? Part number, etc. Remember not my area of expertise

The correct Chevrolet part number for a 1950-1952 lifter is 5230650....not to be confused with a 1953 lifter which was 5230850.

Just got 4 nos on eBay
8 to go

Good luck

Before I have this engine torn apart again, can we confirm that I have the correct lifters just one more time? Got 12 NOS this time. thanks

Yes, thy are the correct lifters for yor 1951 engine