Ardun lifters / tappets substitute

I know Ardun Enterprises makes new milk bottle lifters but I believe that there are at least 2 different subsitiutes for the original design. I believe that Austin 100-4's work and also early Buick (?year) straight 8 mechanical lifters. Can anyone verify this or better yet does anyone have experience with using these? Thanks in advance.

 

I gotta ask why? Are you just trying to find a better price than Ferguson charges? Or are you trying to change geometry?

I remember my Dad bought a set of lifters many years ago for his heads, and they were probably the Buicks. But I think he used new Fergusons when he finally put the engine together.

 

I have been told by several Ardun builders in the past that it is commonplace to use 1" tappets from other manufacturers such as Austin and Buick. My inquiry is for my own education but ultimately I would like to compare all of the potential tappets for my own use when the time comes.

 

flatheadkid1 the origianl ARDUN milk body shape lifter body that came in the ARDUN kit was made using Buick straight eight lifters. ARDUN mechanical added a machined steel push rod cup extension to the top of the Buick lifter thus converting the Buick for the actual ARDUN kit. The Buick lifter body never had a push rod cup on the top the push rod in the Buick went way down into the center of the hollow lifter sitting on a push rod cup located at the very bottom of the lifter body. You may ask how I know this well after wearig out a few lifters in my ARDUN I decided to cut the top machined section off the worn lifters to save the top section for reuse once I seperated the brazed top off the first lifter I noticed the push rod cup way down in the bottom of the lifter body.
After a little reserch I found the straight eight Buick lifter. The Buick lifter is what I used to replace my worn lifters. However I did not reuse the ARDUN machined steel push rod cup assembly. In its place I used an aluminum extension which I machined and then placed Smith Brothers push rod cups into the aluminum. My new ARDUN lifters were a bit lighter than the originals which is always a good thing. I contiue to use this design on the replacement sets I make for any of the ARDUN's I build for people.
I have seen lifters for the ARDUN conversion that were identical in overall length as the Buick conversion but the lifter body was shorter with a longer machined steel extension added to the top of the shorter lifter body. The origin of this shorter lifter body is unknown its possible this not so common lifter was used to complete the sales of the last remaining ARDUN kits by some crafty person.
I have always felt it might be possible to make a set of ARDUN lifters using the original Ford flathead hollow lifter once the Ford top is cut off. A VERY long machined push rod cup extension could be pushed into this shorter body. IM not sure how well this much shorter lifter body would work since the location of the extension now much lower on the shorter body might produce excessive leverage at the mating joint causing a failure. Maybe thats why Zora and Geroge Kudash decided to not modify Ford lifters which Im sure would have cost a lot less that the Buick lifter. Maybe such an idea was tryed by ARDUN mechanical and it was determined to not be reliable but since my discusion's with Geroge Kudash who designed the ARDUN conversion never touched on the subject we will never know for sure.
As an added note no prints exist of the lifter design from ARDUN mechanical the only known complete prints which I have in my collection show the valve train design and the head casting but no lifters.

 

Fantastic info thanks for sharing Ronnie !

 

Thanks for all the great info Ron! Your modification to the Buick lifter is interesting. It sounds like something I'd be willing to try.

 

Thank you for your information on the lifters.

 

One of the few things I regret selling is the ARDUN V8-60 I had years ago. This is a NOS lifter that lives in the top draw of my tool box. Bob

 

The ARDUN lifter for the V-60 conversion was much easier to develope actually using a modifyed Ford lifter would work perfectly. The Simca OHV HEMI head which looks like a small version of the big ARDUN bolts directly to the Ford V-8 sixty block. My conversion lifter for that small head uses the original Ford sixty lifter upon which I added a machined extension with the proper push rod cup.

 

I believe lincoln lifters can be used.