Technical New purchased hydraulic lifters bad ?

Seeing and watching videos where newly installed lifters were bad , damaged the cam lobe and left metal in the engine. Ground wrong or not hardened properly? SBC flat tappet engines. Any of you experienced that?? Showed the bad lifter with chips out of it and not crowned ,were perfectly flat. gene in Mn

 

Yep. Wiped two cams. During break in. Decided to go with a roller. Hope that's the last one.

 

Wow .. To do it correctly will require a complete engine tear down,labor,new parts and complete cleaning of metal debris...

 

I was once given a set of Badger lifters that were crap. They did not hurt the cam and I flushed the motor really good. The engine held together but I was never really comfortable with it until I could afford to pull it down and overhaul it again.

I bought a set of Crane lifters in the late '90s that stuck not all of them just some of them. It was like running solids with zero lash. LOL I replaced them with better lifters. They didn't hurt the cam either.

 

Theres no telling whos lifters are any good now. Ive gone roller for my 55 Chevy project,but if I had to take a chance on flat tappet I think I would use GM Delphi lifters. They have a hardened bottom that you can see is different from the body.Next question...is the metal in cam cores any good?

 

Same problem with big block Mopar. Happened 2x comp cams said I must have installed it wrong. I have built many engines never a problem now 2 in a row. Most likely I will use a solid roller. You can be sure it won't be from comp cams .

 

good question..

 

What did you use for break in lube. Break in oil what procedure & what valve springs ???

 

After market cams/lifters are junk in may cases these days. Chinese, Asian, etc

Lke someone said, go to original part counter...Chevy Delphi, etc etc

 

I had problems starting up my Buick 455. The first cam wiped a lobe and I just thought it was bad luck. Bought a new cam and lifters and installed them. Started it up and my buddy told me to shut it down. Removed valve covers and found 2 dead lifters (Eaton). I disassembled them and both DID NOT have a spring in them! I got two more new ones and successfully broke in the cam. After that, I got to thinking and disassembled the lifter that mated to the failed lobe in cam #1. This was a Johnson lifter. The check valve seat was cocked in it and there was no way it could pump up. So, yes QC on lifters is damned sketchy right now as far as I'm concerned.

 

Who can afford to purchase a roller camshaft set up unless it's a late model roller engine it's high dollar.

 

Yup Good point , I for one can no longer afford a roller cam setup,( retired.) Have always done a engine with flat hydraulic lifters, Use to always do the job for what I wanted to use the engine for & the cost Gene

 

Add about $1000 to $1200 if you want a roller set up in anything that doesn't normally have one. I'm in the tear down stage of a Pontiac, not really looking forward to finding lifters, the last one took 6 weeks of calling around till I found a set of US made NOS Clevite's, everyone was out of Johnson's.

 

Does anyone use moly lube anymore. I use it all aver the cam and lifters. I have never had a problem. I avoid comp cams anymore, and use summit white box cams.

 

I use moly-lube on the lifters and cam but I also spray my camshafts with dry lube. Dry lubefFor storing camshafts and before installation & break in. I believe the paste lube sticks to the spray on dry lube.
I also religiously use Summit Racing camshafts (№ 1785 for SBC) but with Melling lifters.

My last CompCam was a SBC roller cam in a late model block. I had Zero issues in that application except for cost of the roller cam and lifters, but for a hydraulic cam I'll stick with Summit's line up. I have had good success with their camshafts.

 

My friend had 2 Summit cams in arow go bad, had to tear down and flush out engine 3 times. The third cam they sent was a comp. So far so good. They never question him on anything, just sent new cams. Did not even ask to return bad cams for inspection. Doesn't instill a lot of confidence in products nowadays. The cost of going back through the engine 3 times and the lack of confidence how long it will hold up he would have been cheaper off spending the extra grand for the roller. Larry

 

Ya knows what I think, while it's been a while since I built a motor, I have to think until I see the pictures, it didn't happen. And surprisingly enough NO one has posted a picture of a recent worn out cam lobe that I can recall from memory.

Not saying it didn't happen just the way they say or said. Just that I haven't seen the pictures.
So, as for the You Tube Video's, Hollywood makes it all look real, I thought California had fallen off into the ocean.

So, believe what you will. I wouldn't hesitate to buy new lifters. Or a cam lifter package. I sure can't afford roller. I haven't called GM parts in a while but Napa and my discount is within reach.
And I'd pay by Visa, keep a receipt and record everything.

As far as it goes, with manufacturing and modern control systems that are in place to ensure better out comes, really, who you going to believe. Most certainly, the guy who is out to make a buck making share the knowledge videos. Cause he might be right.

Or he might next be making a video to see if that SBC will run with lifters that don't spin, rocker arms out of alignment on the valve tips, sticky lifter bores, poor oiling? We don't know, some don't care. But I'm low buck and I trust the lifters NAPA sells me.

As far as the 3 cams story and no questions asked...sure. Buy with Visa double the warranty. Third time is always the charm.

But for arguments sake, which craps out first the cam or the lifter. A worn lifter starts to click. What are most going to do. Worry about it and wait. See if it gets worse or goes away.
If you look at pictures of a worn lifter the next thing you want to do is stick a rod into a grinder to see how long it takes with out oil to grind it down to size. That's a lot of clacking.

But yea, I'd be worrying about something, just not that. I trust the part more then the surgeon installing it.

 

I had a 318 eat a Summit Cam. The lifter must have been improperly hardened and ground. I replaced it with an edelbrock set and it did fine. It really sucks breaking in a cam only to have it fail anyhow.

 

NoelC, recently (past several months) many have shown pics of failed lifters, ground down. Unsure if I recall a cam pic or not.

 

July, 2022 Summit cam and lifters. Heard a "tick" in 5 minutes, it got worse and shut it down in less than 20 minutes.

 

If you've got the extra grand to spend , retirement / fixed income / inflation out of control !

 

Melling made in the US are supposed to be better lifters. Some boxes say made in Mexico, but we've been buying parts from them for 50 years. I saw that with Ford dealer parts.

Smart auto parts stores used to slide you a tube of cam lube when you bought a new cam. Now they come with any kit I've bought in recent years. I also go the mile and pre-oil engines with new cams, go light on the lash to get through the break in.

 

Not sure where you guys are buying your roller cam kits and having to pay $1000 or more? My cam and lifters are Howards and cost me around $650 two years ago for non retrofit kit. Today the same kit is $740 for retrofit, which isn't much more than they were 2 years ago.
Yes, you can buy a flat tappet cam kit for about half the price. But considering how much an engine build costs, and possible damage a cam/lifter failure can cost, I'd rather not take the chance.

 

Guess I missed that. I do stand corrected.
But it goes to what I said. Heard a tick and waited till it got worse. I'm sorry for the loss.

The question is why. Show us that but, why did it occur. Best we can conclude is thru no fault of their own. Doctor tried but the patient died, next. It's called practice. Some do it 3 times till they figure it out.

All you have to do is watch you tube fail videos and then ask the question, is it a manufacturing issue or a people problem. Most of the time it's a people issue.

 

try to find the Morel lifter, they've been around forever, I believe they are in Florida, USA made in any event, I think they are connected to Callies Crankshafts?

 

@ $750 that's $575 more than the $175 flat tappet kits from Comp. Products ,my math says that's a bunch more than 1/2 !?

 

A $750 Howard’s roller cam and lifters is only the start. Won’t you need different springs and retainers to get full benefit, oh, and new, shorter pushrods too? So you pull the heads to machine the spring seats and now your into head gaskets, etc. Hey, the heads are off so let’s touch up the valves and maybe look at the guides too. But wait, why spend on these old iron ‘462’s, why not step up to aftermarket aluminum heads instead, and while we’re at it throw in a set of 1.6 aluminum roller rockers too. Hydraulic rollers have their good side but there can be a down side too. At least for some.

 

I think he was conveying a new performance build cost, not just a cam swap.

 

Taking into account the cost of manufacturing and marketing of the last 10 years, exactly what kind of quality do you expect for $175.00. Between machine work, parts and assembly if you can't do it yourself a basic small block Chevy build is 3 to 6 thousand dollars, and it goes up from there. This site might be dedicated to 64 and older but we haven't had 64 prices in 58 years. I have been building cars and engines and racing for 50 plus years and know a lot of top-notch engine and car builders who have closed up shop because of cost and quality of parts in the last 5 years. And if you haven't experienced the problems with the quality of parts in the last 10 years you have either been very lucky or you're not building anything! Larry

 

And yet , some of us seem to soldier on , successfully with the less expensive cam kits