I found myself a original bore ('72) 455 block for rebuild. Block has little core shift on the cylinders, but the liftergallery wall thickness is around 1/8" or so. I'm going to run the TA290-94H or the TA413 in this block. I found out that the liftergallery clearance is around 0.003" which is to much. What are the options to get the clearance on spec? There is not much material left to put a sleeve in. Do they make a oversized lifter for the Buick engine? I also heard that they put Ford Y block lifters (solid) in and make new sleeves for in the gallery, but can't find any info here or on the internet. Buick cores are hard to find here in Europe.
0.003" indeed. Most of them are around 0.003" some of them a bit tighter. On a other low mileage block I have, which has a lot of core shift, the clearance is around 0.0015"
If the lifter bores are .030 oversized. Trying to sleeve it without enlarging the lifter bore is not going to leave you much sleeve wall thickness. Plus you still need some clearance between the lifter and the lifter bore. I hope you can find a lifters that are oversized.
Ok got it. Oversized by .003. So, what is the clearance supposed to be? .001 to .002? That doesn't seem enough clearance for 10W30W oil. But, what do I know. Oil does thin out when hot. Vet
It has been noted that buick and Olds have repaired casting or machining issue in the lifter areas by using oversized lifters. Some blocks got a full set, some only got the few needed. Buick lifter were roughly .842, and you can get ford .875......so .033 bigger. That's about .016 to .017 off all the sides. If your not running stupid spring pressures I'm betting it would be just fine.......you could always add a lifter girdle or make the plates that expoy in to add support. I'm sure none of these options are overly cheap
Buick service manual calls for lifer clearances of .0008 -.0023, if your .003 that's only. 0007 out of spec, it adds up if all are that way but I would imagine with proper bearing clearances and oil mods done to block, tight pump clearances you would be ok or you could run the hv pump to move more oil. Or really take the time to meaure several sets of lifters carefully and pick the biggest to help you out
You mean lifter BORE clearance?? The galley is the long supply “tunnel” that intersects the lifter bores.
found this...thought it was on he board. https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/buick-455-valve-lifters.308019/#post-2563591
Used to undercut mach tool spindle bearing journals, send out for hard chrome plate and regrind to original specs. Some cases, I would ask for flash plate. Maybe .0007 total thickness. Pretty smooth at .0007 thickness. No grinding was needed. All areas to not get plated would be masked off, in this case, lifter face & insides.
Now if you had lifter o.d. plated .004, then centerless ground to .8435, you'd have better oil pressure than everybody!
Yup, in a perfect world lifter bore clearance would be .0015. But I am here to tell you we don't live there.. I have checked dozens of blocks over the years, and we check everyone for lifter bore clearance now, and the norm is .002 to .0025 Most blocks are around .0025.. Yes, you can oversize the lifter bores to .875 and use Ford lifters, done that, worked well. Just make sure your machine shop is up to the task.. Start with asking them what the lifter bore angle of a Buick 455 is.. if they come back with 45*, then they are just guessing. I would tell them that you have been advised that the lifter bore clearance variation is normal for a BBB and to press on with the work. All you will see with that .003 lifter clearance is a reduction in hot oil pressure at idle, but a good pump setup, with the proper bypass plate installed, along with the correct oil mods, and it still should be able to hold 15psi or so.. which according to the Buick engineers, is not a problem. As long as it jumps up as soon as you increase engine rpm. Good luck with it. JW
Thank you Jim, finally, someone putting in the real prospective of how small .003 really is. The human hair follicle is only .003 in diameter. I totally agree with Jim, you will only see a reduction in hot oil pressure at idle. As a machinist, even in the machining world, holding a .003 tolerance is not as easy as it may seem. All you have to have, is an end-mill that is not to the diameter that's being spec'ed out. O' sure, on a CNC machine you can compensate on a tool cutter that isn't to spec diameter, but that interrupts the machining process and cost machining costs to escalate. I've machined a lot of cast iron (not Buick high nickel content), and it's not as easy to machine it to tight demential tolerances. PS, just so all know, cast iron material is very abrasive material and wares down tool cutters.Vet (Navy)
midnightcruiser, I know exactly what you are going thru, been there done that! I had to purchase 3 sets of lifters to get 16 that would measure a few tenths bigger to fix my problem. I know at one time Mellings sold a .oo5 bigger flat tappet lifter (.847 size). I believe they were for Chevrolet but Chevy lifters worked for me. Maybe you can buy those and hone the bores to size. Maybe your machinist has a lifter honing mandrel. A couple of my holes were tighter but most were .003 +bigger. Using the Ford lifter .875 we had to turn the mandrel very slow, removing tenths at a time to end up with clearances' at .0016-.0019. One in particular my machinist turned 2 down with a diamond stone. That procedure held up really well but again not cheap and not fast. It seemed like it took forever and lots of patience, but we got it. All that work is paying great dividends today on one of my motors. My idle oil pressure is 30 psi with oil at 170-200 degrees. What ever you do, make sure you take those lifters apart (I also measure the plunger and cups, and believe it or not they were 2 out of spec) and clean them very good. If you are going to run a roller lifter then be sure you can easily remove the tie bars to swap the lifter around in the block. That's another story for another day. Fernando
