How Many U.S. Based Hydraulic Tappet Manufacturers Exist Today, and Which Makes the Best Buy?

Gerald Morris

Gerald Morris

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While I seldom get much time for the Forum these daze, I must ask my Elders what they know about sources of good quality stock hydraulic tappets. I loosened all the lifters in my Commando core, see rust, notice that both intake and exhaust on cylinder #1 corroded to a point precluding ANY redemption, and suspect the rest of them are FUBAR, despite relative ease of extraction. I doubt I have time to follow the FSM procedure for cleansing and testing them, as much as I would like to do so. This being said, I need to know who makes the most cost effective hydraulic lifter in country today. I see that Johnson has gone to rollers exclusively, and Hylift Johnson seems to have settled on making theirs for GM engines. I see Hughes gets theirs from Hylift Johnson, and 440 Source claims theirs are made by some reputable U.S. manufacturer who they don't name. Does anyone else in this country make decent lifters? I don't care to shop for stuff from the Pacific Rim.... I'm starting to plan how to make this engine useful to my family, and must take care with resources.....
 
Perhaps the two USA manufacturers have decided to sell their Mopar lifters through noted Mopar parts sources? Which might give them enough steady volume to make yearly or bi-yearly runs of Mopar only products. Rather than waiting for machine shops to desire "sets" at sporadic times? Makes their planning and production functions easier and more consistent.

ALTERNATIVES might be . . . to bush the Chrysler lifter bores down to Small Block Chevy size and use the available SBC lifters with appropriate-length pushrods, as allegedly many aftermarket cams are ground on SBC lobe circles (other than Hughes). Then possibly adding some 1.60 rocker ratio rocker arms (roller preferred) to complete the package? Not so much for the higher lift, but the quicker opening and closing of the valves, which can make better use of the available port flow.

Just some thoughts,
CBODY67
 
The lifters know no DNA "family lines", just a size and configuration. SBC lifters are of a smaller diameter than the Mopar lifters, as the Hughes website notes and explained. The larger the lifter's base is (up to and including the mushroom lifters used in the Ford Y-blocks), the closer the lift curve looks like that of a roller lifter, with more area under the lift curve and more open time at TDC).

ONE incognito trick for some dirt track racers, who must use stock parts, is to bore the lifter bores oversize so they can use Mopar-spec lifters.

There's also one piston ring size for big block Chevies which crosses with a Chrysler 440 ring. SAME part number from the ring people.

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
CBODY67 said:
Perhaps the two USA manufacturers have decided to sell their Mopar lifters through noted Mopar parts sources? Which might give them enough steady volume to make yearly or bi-yearly runs of Mopar only products.....
Click to expand...
I suspect this is what 440Source is doing. Their wares have a decent rep at present. High likelyhood I'll use them
CBODY67 said:
ALTERNATIVES might be . . . to bush the Chrysler lifter bores down to Small Block Chevy size and use the available SBC lifters with appropriate-length pushrods, as allegedly many aftermarket cams are ground on SBC lobe circles (other than Hughes). Then possibly adding some 1.60 rocker ratio rocker arms (roller preferred) to complete the package? Not so much for the higher lift, but the quicker opening and closing of the valves, which can make better use of the available port flow.
Click to expand...

I see several adjustable pushrod options out there. If I must bush the lifters, that added component might compromise the longevity of the installation, though if one MUST, then one MUST. I think I'll do some trained searching for NOS lifters, using Archie, Veronica and Jughead; good old fashioned UNIX search engines I can run on my machine at home which can screen out the advertising CRAP from Google, Bing and other blatantly bought engines.

Johnson still does roller rocker lifters for Mopars. I will go to roller rockers only if there is no sound option otherwise. Added cost, which will dictate changing more components than I want to. I like Hughes if I must drop more cash. They still vend Hylift-Johnson, though, as the links from the first answer above mention, some folks now doubt the quality of H-J.... For the $, I expect the stuff from 440Source might be best value, but I lack data....
 
CBODY67 said:
The lifters know no DNA "family lines", just a size and configuration.

There's also one piston ring size for big block Chevies which crosses with a Chrysler 440 ring. SAME part number from the ring people.
Click to expand...

You're sooo right! IDK if the old fellow still breathes, but I met a gent who custom built one of the smaller (332 in^3?) 1950s Hemi V8s, using the basement of the Physics lab at the U of Az here! He used Chevy pistons and connecting rods, and a heavily modified EFI of his contriving for his little monster early '60s Dart! Thus do aged mechanical engineering profs while away their time and surplus wealth. He liked Mathilda, and the fact that I was driving that rust-bubble as my daily family car! I met him while canvassing his neighborhood, but, being a fellow with high professional standards, I never tried panhandling the man. He had an enviable garage full of Old Mopars.
 
just to confuse things last time I checked there are 2 Johnson lifter companies ...Johnson and hy lift Johnson....some internet reading revealed that Top Line bought Hy Lift prob 20 yrs ago, then an employee/manager (Hicks) pretty much stole their equipment to try to start his own lifter company and got caught...there's also another Johnson lifter co that claims to be in business since 1954 and might be the remnants of Hy lift before Top Line bought them...certainly amusing reading....my Hughes cam came with the Hy lifts and made it thru break in alive...I think you're pretty safe cause I'm sure you're not planning on using an aggressive cam profile anyway...my Icon pistons are .055 over and use .990 wrist pins cause they are actually BBC forgings....edit...seems plain Johnson no longer makes flat tappet lifters, so i guess Hy Lift Johnson is the only game in town
 
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66fs said:
Check Isky or Racer Brown. Johnson lifters were the go to lifter source. No way I'd go Chevy lifters in a MOPAR.
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Thx. I'm seeing Iskander stuff around, and another smaller operation named "Clay Smith" which might be of interest. I remind myself I have a hoard of used lifters also, many of which might be worth the trouble to refurbish if indeed new ones are in short supply! For now, I'm searching, and deeply thank all of you for your suggestions.
 
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volksworld said:
just to confuse things last time I checked there are 2 Johnson lifter companies ...Johnson and hy lift Johnson....some internet reading revealed that Top Line bought Hy Lift prob 20 yrs ago, then an employee/manager (Hicks) pretty much stole their equipment to try to start his own lifter company and got caught...there's also another Johnson lifter co that claims to be in business since 1954 and might be the remnants of Hy lift before Top Line bought them...certainly amusing reading....my Hughes cam came with the Hy lifts and made it thru break in alive...
Click to expand...

Yes. I believe there was some falling out....
 
Clay Smith Cams. Logos included a red-headed woodpecker head. On the back of shirts, jackets, and back window decals. Around since the early days of Iskendarian.
 
CBODY67 said:
Clay Smith Cams. Logos included a red-headed woodpecker head. On the back of shirts, jackets, and back window decals. Around since the early days of Iskendarian.
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Gotcha. In light of the relative dearth and expense of good lifters, I AM cleaning up and checking these old ones. I have plenty old ones, though I'll have to mind whether they're for early or later pushrod sizes.
 
Gerald Morris said:
While I seldom get much time for the Forum these daze, I must ask my Elders what they know about sources of good quality stock hydraulic tappets. I loosened all the lifters in my Commando core, see rust, notice that both intake and exhaust on cylinder #1 corroded to a point precluding ANY redemption, and suspect the rest of them are FUBAR, despite relative ease of extraction. I doubt I have time to follow the FSM procedure for cleansing and testing them, as much as I would like to do so. This being said, I need to know who makes the most cost effective hydraulic lifter in country today. I see that Johnson has gone to rollers exclusively, and Hylift Johnson seems to have settled on making theirs for GM engines. I see Hughes gets theirs from Hylift Johnson, and 440 Source claims theirs are made by some reputable U.S. manufacturer who they don't name. Does anyone else in this country make decent lifters? I don't care to shop for stuff from the Pacific Rim.... I'm starting to plan how to make this engine useful to my family, and must take care with resources.....
Click to expand...
Real roller johnson lifters
20250419_142254.jpg
20250419_142241.jpg
 
CBODY67 said:
The lifters know no DNA "family lines", just a size and configuration. SBC lifters are of a smaller diameter than the Mopar lifters, as the Hughes website notes and explained. The larger the lifter's base is (up to and including the mushroom lifters used in the Ford Y-blocks), the closer the lift curve looks like that of a roller lifter, with more area under the lift curve and more open time at TDC).

ONE incognito trick for some dirt track racers, who must use stock parts, is to bore the lifter bores oversize so they can use Mopar-spec lifters.

There's also one piston ring size for big block Chevies which crosses with a Chrysler 440 ring. SAME part number from the ring people.

Enjoy!
CBODY67
Click to expand...
Not going smaller diameter lifters. Ever rebuild a small block Chevy? All the lifters are shot, concave faces, round cam lobes.
 
66fs said:
Not going smaller diameter lifters. Ever rebuild a small block Chevy? All the lifters are shot, concave faces, round cam lobes.
Click to expand...
Have not looked at my '77 305 that's been on my engine stand since we pulled it out with 525k miles on it. Cam was upgraded at 92k. No issues with the OEM cam and lifters. The reason we swapped it was due to all of the core plugs in the block were leaking coolant. No issues with anything cam-related, after 408k miles. The cam upgrade was to an aftermarket cam and my machine shop operative sourced the lifters from what he used in the machine shop (with no comebacks or similar).

I have seen the concave lifters you mention, even one with a hole in the bottom. All it caused was a lifter tick that could not be adjusted out. A new lifter fixed it.

Just my experiences,
CBODY67
 
So after reading this original post I am trying to find out whether there are any high performance push rods as per attached photos, they have a ball on the rocker side and on the lifter side it looks like a bottle neck

IMG_20250421_190530.jpg
 
DirkRhodie said:
So after reading this original post I am trying to find out whether there are any high performance push rods as per attached photos, they have a ball on the rocker side and on the lifter side it looks like a bottle neck

View attachment 716609
Click to expand...
Those are 67 and down pushrods,, most people upgrade to 68+. But if you need em I would try Smith brothers
 
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