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Woods lifters worth it or not?

25K views 36 replies 20 participants last post by  Harley2001 
#1 ·
#2 ·
Twice, in my personal bikes, I have had bad luck with the Woods. Right now, I have a rear tick and I think it's the lifter. Last time, It was the lifter and that bike ended up with two Black Ops and Two woods.

To do THAT... it surely wasn't worth the price for TWO friggen lifters.

Others have had excellent results, tho. Just stating my own experiences.
 
#3 ·
S&S lifters are your safe bet. I installed a set of Gatormans on my 97" build that I did this past Jan. I have had nothing but very good performance from them although they have certain people who dislike them because they are made in China. They back up the product if you have a problem. Later
 
#5 ·
I just took a set of gaterman lifters out of because of noise.Replaced them with a set of Gmr lifters and their smith brothers pushrods 1500 miles and it sounds great.
 
#10 ·
The new $250-$260 lifters from Wood are made in the same plant as Fuelings lifters

The older model lifters seemed to be hit or miss.....Ive only had one go south and was replaced with another and no problems.

Not every engine build needs $200+ lifters

Ive used/sold plenty of comp 850-1,Morels,Johnsons and very few problems
 
#18 ·
Well yeah, any lifter can fail, I've seen failures of ALL brands, even one of the S&S HL2T lifters I like so much, it was caught before it trashed the engine. The $100 each Jims lifters all the way down to the cheapest imported models, fail.
If the failure is in the hydraulic portion, consider yourself lucky, if it's a roller going, it could go from making a tick, to trashing the engine in a few minutes.
When a tick develops, oit of nowhere, it needs to be located, and fixed, no matter who's lifters are in it, miles etc, something is going wrong.
 
#25 ·
Loose tolerances in the lifter bores, worn rocker shafts, high spring pressure etc. or combination of these can cause some noise. The first thing to get blamed is the lifter which is seldom the root cause. Number one complaint on a twincam motor is valvetrain noise. My new `16 is very noisy but I have an 02 with ss510 gear drives and 60 thousand miles that is quiet. There seems to be no concrete answer as to why some are noisier than others.
 
#28 ·
Still have not fount the source of the tick I have added a Baisley spring, and rock-out with no difference in sound. I have tried several different oils and adjusted the push rods many times. Still have the tick, I have around 4 thousand miles on the motor now and have decided to ride the b!&ch until she gives because I give up and done chasing. I think its just me and the tick is nothing to worry about.
 
#29 ·
Is it 1 tick or 4 ticks? 1 is a problem 4 are not.
Take it back apart and check for the shiny spot, it could be a pushrod touching the tube or bottom rocker box, it could be any of what the others have mentioned, it could be a loose wrist pin bushing or a piston skirt tapping.
The builder has been more than accommodating, he even came to your house and changed the parts YOU thought were the problem.
The cams are wrong for your motor, yes, they work but are wrong, did the builder mention that? The high lift rocker arms were done in an attempt to get some lift and performance from the wrong cam. I don't see why, after going that far, you reused the cam that worked great in the smaller low compression engine, in this one.
The builder would have been wise to walk away from this one before a wrench was turned.
1 tick take it apart, 4 ticks, ride it.
 
#32 ·
#35 ·
It absolutely IS legit. I bought a set to stop the rocker shafts from rotating and hitting the carrier bolts (which I confirmed was happening from the marks on the bolts) and that noise disappeared.

It cured that noise, but has no way of quietening the valve train if the noise is coming from any other source.

Now I'm trying to stop the general noise in the valve train.
 
#33 ·
Twin cam engines use the same rocker arms and shafts as the Evo engines. If this were the issue, then the Evo engines would have the same tick.
The only difference between the 2 engines in relation to the rocker arm mounts, is they are separate on twin cams, and cast into the lower rocker box on Evo engines.
S&S engines use a similar mounting system as the twin cams, and they don't have a tick. So.... my vote is the fix is another gimmick.
 
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