Valve lifter question

[WyoRoadDog]

Hi folks, I'm getting back to work on my truck after life pulled me away for a few years (last time I was working on it, Jolly still had the Yahoo group!), and I have a lifter question.
I'm rebuilding the 305E that came in my '67, and when I had the machine work done, the machinist thought I would need new lifters because he thought they should be domed on the cam end, and mine were flat. I'm wondering if this is true, as I just disassembled a 351E that I picked up (in the hopes of being rebuildable), and the lifters from it seem flat as well.
Should there be a dome to the lifters? if so, is there spec on how much? Are new lifters available (we couldn't find any at the time)?
Thanks in advance, as I'm going to be blasting you all with questions for a bit, until I get this back together.

[bigblockv6]

The lifters should be flat on the cam side, never heard of them supposed to being domed. I had a extremely low mileage 478M cam reground to performance specs and the cam shop also resurfaced the lifters, nothing domed about them. Chevrolet 235 inline six lifters are fully interchangeable with the V6 and you can get them solid or hydraulic.

[GMCDAC]

Hi guys, I haven't built a V-6 so maybe it's different in a SBC, where I have done lots of cam swaps both hydraulic and solid. I think the machinist used the wrong term by calling the cam end "domed". Every new lifter I have ever installed does have a very slight "crown" on the flat side. The pic is how we would check for it. A barely visible gap should be seen at the edges of the lifter face and the sideways one should be able to "rock" slightly on the face surface of the other. It's not really measurable. That crown is what allows the lifter to rotate. Quite often even when worn flat they will continue rotating just fine as long as they stay on the same cam lobe that wore it in. If they cup even slightly toss them.

The last pic is one that is cupped a bit too much---LOL!

If this doesn't apply to these engines sorry for butting in!

Welcome to the site Wyo, from western So. Dak.!

DAC

[bigblockv6]

The GMC V6 is totally different from the SBC Right now I'm looking at a lifter out of my old 305 with roughly 120,000 miles on it and the bottom of the lifter is considerably flat.

[bigblockv6]

I've just examined some brand new crane lifters for a Jeep 4.0 against the 305 V6 lifter, from what it looks like as flat the surfaces visually appear, running my finger over the surfaces reveals an extremely slight dish on all the lifters.

[TJ's GMC]

Pretty dern sure the ones from my 305E were flat. Didn't pay That much attention to be honest.

[WyoRoadDog]

Thanks for the info! It made me wonder when I pulled the other set out and they appeared to be the same.
I had seen in my search that the 235 lifters would work, but thought that was only talking about the hydraulic swap, didn't know there was a solid option as well. Didn't want to go hydraulic yet, as it looks to take a different cam profile, and I didn't want to re-grind a cam I just had ground...
I'll look at ordering up a set of the I-6 lifters.

[WyoRoadDog]

I would be looking for something like this, correct?
http://www.langdonsstovebolt.com/sto...-12/p/33580031

[atomman]

If you shop around, you will find the price of lifter will range from $12.50 to 38.00 for the GMC lifter. Yes the chevy truck, 235 engine lifter, has the same part number. Bob at Thunder-12 will resurface good old lifters.

[GMCDAC]

I will butt in one more time to show you guys are correct, but I'm not crazy either---LOL! I dug out my old high school auto mechanics text book from 1975 and found that "flat" or "domed" were normal lifter styles. Yeah they call it "domed". It only specifies two "flat" lifter engines but undoubtedly there are many more.

I will leave you to your conversation---sorry!

DAC