Things can be a bit more complex when going backwards. It is strongly suggested to have the proper lubricating system reliefs for the solid lifter engines. Solid lifter engines had their oil control valves located between the #1 pushrod tubes. Hydraulic lifter engines came from the factory without oil control valves, the lifters themselves bled out excess volume.weswsimpson wrote:Hello,
I just disassembled a '77 and it had solid lifters.... which seems to be correct based on the engine number. Are you sure you have hydraulic lifters? Solid lifters would require a matching cam shaft and push rods--and a different method of valve adjustment. Maybe a PO or uninformed shop did a mis-match? Might be worth checking. I'm particularly interested as I have and '80 that I'm thinking of converting to solid lifters as I only plan to use the vanagon occasionally during the summer and don't want to go thru the issues I've had with bleeding the hydraulic lifters.
If you go back to solid lifters on a hydraulic case, the only pressure relief you get is at the rear relief valve. This is automatic cooler bypassing every time the pump puts out more than the galleries can flow.
Colin