Do any of the shops here do lifter refacing?

[tresi]

For the guys that do lifter refacing, do they grind a true radius?
My KO Lee made valve refacer has a lifter attachment but it surfaces at an angle with a slight peak in the center.

My valve grinder has a lifter attachment as well but I have always been afraid to use it thinking it was for days gone by.

[Krooser]

For the guys that do lifter refacing, do they grind a true radius?
My KO Lee made valve refacer has a lifter attachment but it surfaces at an angle with a slight peak in the center.

There's a YouTube video where the operator sez he does a 1 1/2 degree radius but can also do 3 degrees iirc.

[PackardV8]

For the guys that do lifter refacing, do they grind a true radius?
My KO Lee made valve refacer has a lifter attachment but it surfaces at an angle with a slight peak in the center.

There's a YouTube video where the operator sez he does a 1 1/2 degree radius but can also do 3 degrees iirc.

Most bench type tappet grinders cannot produce a true radius, because the tappet chuck and stone are at fixed angles. Ours has the chuck and motor mounted on a plate, pivoted at the chuck end and a 1-to-8 scale at the moveable end. #1 produces the flattest face and #8 the largest crown.

FWIW, lifters are drawn with the face as the section of a sphere. A 30" spherical radius is a highly crowned lifter. The early hemi and Packard V8 used those. IIRC, the SBC uses a much flatter 120" spherical radius.

[Krooser]

Here's that video on refacing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1FXQ3q ... ex=23&t=0s

[kirkwoodken]

FWIW: You can make almost infinite number of radii by using the inside surface of a cup grinding wheel. If the wheel face is perpendicular to the lifter bottom, the lifter will be flat. If you angle the wheel mount, such as turning the compound on a lathe with a tool post grinder, so the bottom of the lifter is ground on the INSIDE of the wheel cup, you will make any radius up to the radius of the inside of the wheel. Careful adjustment will let you grind a .0015" crown with amazing repeatability if you use a 3 3/4" CBN grinding wheel.

[dirtracr5]

Another vote for camcraft. They can do any radius you want (within reason of course)

[Krooser]

Another vote for camcraft. They can do any radius you want (within reason of course)

Charles is a good guy to deal with...

[ZEOHSIX]

Years ago when I had a shop recotour my 585 Chevy edge orifice solid lifters the guy recommended I go to a 100" radius from the GM 120" one....I called Bullet Cams to help me make my decision and Bullet said the guy was absolutely right in his thinking.

[jsgarage]

Supstk, one race shop I hung around in CA got a Ferrari 246 Dino in for freshening. The SOHC 6 had numerous engine problems, one of which was, someone had refaced the bucket cam followers- not to a radius but to a very shallow cone! This took out lobes on both cams in very few miles. Oh, and someone substituted cut-down Chevy exhausts for the outrageously expensive Ferrari sodium-cooled exhausts. That engine 'freshening' bill sent the shop owner to FL for a nice vacation!

And as someone else replied, my old Sioux valve grinder came with a lifter grinding attachment but I suspect it was meant for pre-WW2 lifters. Maybe flathead Fords & its contemporaries had flat-face lifters?

[modok]

If you had a USED cam/lifter set, where the lifters were worn slightly concave, then facing them flat would be better than leaving them alone. The old parts were a lot softer than most today, and wore a lot more.

I think it's worth noting that the CAM lobes do wear to match the slight variations in the block, but lifters really don't.
You can replace or re-face the lifters and leave the cam alone if it only has very slight wear, and sometimes that's a good idea, but rarely done.
On the other hand putting a used cam in a different block is usually a bad idea, yet people still do it.

[Krooser]

If you had a USED cam/lifter set, where the lifters were worn slightly concave, then facing them flat would be better than leaving them alone. The old parts were a lot softer than most today, and wore a lot more.

I think it's worth noting that the CAM lobes do wear to match the slight variations in the block, but lifters really don't.
You can replace or re-face the lifters and leave the cam alone if it only has very slight wear, and sometimes that's a good idea, but rarely done.
On the other hand putting a used cam in a different block is usually a bad idea, yet people still do it.

This cam was one night old and is now in three pieces... the PO loaned the motor to a friend who hurt it... twice in two nights. I bought it with four broken rods and pistons.

Anyway the lifters, which appear to be Mopar or Comp, are two races old...one was hurt so I have 15 good ones... resurfacing is a ton cheaper than new. Important with my social security budget!

[Krooser]

Got my single Comp lifter yesterday. Slightly different seat cup... gives oil to the pushrod. Other than that it's fine.

[rcull]

FWIW: You can make almost infinite number of radii by using the inside surface of a cup grinding wheel. If the wheel face is perpendicular to the lifter bottom, the lifter will be flat. If you angle the wheel mount, such as turning the compound on a lathe with a tool post grinder, so the bottom of the lifter is ground on the INSIDE of the wheel cup, you will make any radius up to the radius of the inside of the wheel. Careful adjustment will let you grind a .0015" crown with amazing repeatability if you use a 3 3/4" CBN grinding wheel.

I stumbled onto this thread and read this posting and it interesting, so I tried it. It seemed to work just GREAT! And thought someone else might be interested in the results, good or bad.

I used my KO Lee precision grinder (tool and cutter sharpener) with the motorized work head. Work beautifully! My stone was a little coarse and it doesn't have a coolant system, but I have ordered a fine diamond which will make it easy to get a finer surface. To get the correct radius, I set the stone at about 3-1/2 degrees. I am thinking if I use a 6" cup, it will give me a little more to play with when resetting an angle.
I am not going into lifter resurfacing, but as a remote dweller, it is always nice to have an option that doesn't include a bunch of distance shipping and long time delays:)

[ProPower engines]

Wow old thread back to life again

What model of machine is that??
Wondered if a KO lee valve refacing machine could be converted as they are collet chucks.

[rcull]

Wow old thread back to life again

What model of machine is that??
Wondered if a KO lee valve refacing machine could be converted as they are collet chucks.

It is a KO Lee BA960