All Small Six How to tell if you have Hydraulic or solid lifters in a 250 engine

[Bill]

I have a question for the group how do you tell if you have solid or hydraulic lifter in a 250 engine? The motor I have in my 67 van is 77 Maverick 250 and it has a slight ignition miss at idle changed out the coil and spark plugs they were all clean no carbon build up and a few smelled like gas but only a few. I had installed an aftermarket electronic distributor and new wires but will try a new set of wires also just trying to narrow down the ignition miss and hoping it is in ignition system before I have to adjust the lifters, but not sure which type of lifters were installed in this engine. I had just finished installing Holley Autolite 1100 Sniper EFI and it runs great, but still have a slight miss while idling. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[powerband]

if you are asking - no factory 250 would have solid lifters. A modified engine could have solid lifters installed. Solid lifters won't have 'lock ring' clip on top holding valving.
.

Hydraulic vs. Solid Lifters · Help Center

 

[Bill]

if you are asking - no factory 250 would have solid lifters. A modified engine could have solid lifters installed. Solid lifters won't have 'lock ring' clip on top holding valving.
.

Hydraulic vs. Solid Lifters · Help Center

 

[drag-200stang]

That may be true on non oil through lifters but on oil through they have a snap ring so they can do the oil metering disk thing inside. Like on small block V8 fords that they sell sometimes for small six's and oil through apps.

 

[DON]

I would think any solid lifter would need an adjustable rocker arm. You would still have to pull the valve cover

 

[Frank]

still have a slight miss while idling. Any advice would be appreciated.

Verify no vacuum leaks.
Loose lifters (valve train) will be noisy. Also loose valves opening less would assist the idle quality, not hurt it. Unless there's significant rocker arm noise, lifters are not the cause of the idle miss.