Advantages or disadvantages between solid or
hydraulic lifters

 

I will never endorse the use of solid lifters for anything other than drag racing bikes, not street bikes. There is absolutely no advantage to running solid lifters in a street bike. On the drag strip they might give you an extra 1/10th of a second in the quarter mile but in a street bike they will only be something that you will have to re-adjust every 500 miles or so, you will gain NO performance by running solid lifters in a street bike.
Hydraulic lifters are a "Set it and forget it" component. You will never have to re-adjust a hydraulic lifter. If you think a hydraulic lifter needs re-adjusted, it needs to be replaced! Contrary to what I hear a lot of, I have never seen the spring in a hydraulic lifter go bad. When they do go bad, it's almost always because of damage to the checkball or seat (keeping clean oil in your motor will help to prevent this)
One thing nobody seems to understand is that you MUST match the type of cam to the type of lifters. If you have a solid lifter type cam, You MUST use solid lifters. If you have a cam made for hydraulic lifters you MUST use hydraulic lifters.
For example; If you have a "B" grind cam in your Shovel, You MUST use solid lifters. The "B" grind is specifically a solid lifter cam and you will destroy the cam and lifters if you use hydraulics. If you want to run hydraulics you will have to upgrade to either a Crane "HB" or an Andrews "AB" cam. Those goofy hydraulic to solid conversion kits work great but if you convert the hydraulic lifters to solid YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE CAM to a solid lifter type!

For tips on initial lifter/pushrod adjustment, see Pushrod Adjustment.