HARD Lesson Learned About Chinese Junk!

If you don't pull the cam out I'd at least check the lift on that lobe. That roller should have ate the lobe off by the way it looks.

 

Ditto! With crap like that out there, I'd do a service and let people know where these were bought to keep others from running metal through their engines.

 

after all that money dropped into a motor you put ebay lifters in it? dunno man, i dont think the chinese should take a hit for that one. lesson learned though, huh?

 

i've seen a set of comp cams vertical bar roller lifters do the same thing.

 

WOW! Those are gnarly looking for sure!

I bought some hydraulic lifters from Hot Heads awhile back. Stock type 331,354,392 lifters. They ALSO came in a "white box". I asked around, called them SEVERAL times to double, tripple check. They SWEAR up and down that the lifters they sell are made in the US. I also took every single one of them apart, examined them, cleaned them, everything. They actually look find and spec out fine as well.

So who knows. Maybe the ones I bought are or are NOT made in US, but they did indeed come in the "white box".

 

I bitch about the price of my Comp Cams lifters and the fact that it took damn near a year to get them (2000-2001). HOWEVER....no trouble since, not even a little.

I buy American when I can, and seeing that I'm an American manufacturer, I hope others do, too. Thanks if you do.

 

There's another lesson to be learned here. The cam survived.... because it was made from US steel. Never, ever buy a cam without checking with the person who ground it (not the person who sold it) if it was ground on a chinese billet or a US billet. Chinese billets are primarily made from powdered iron, and have a much lower Rockwell (hardness) rating.

 

Tampa is in China now...Damn they moved the whole town there?
Just kidding man...Sorry to here about your bad luck.

 

How much spring pressure are you running? Did you notice if there was any fine metal particles in the motor or is the busted pin the only issue? I once sold a Clay Smith cam to a guy not knowing it was hard-faced-overlay. Filled the oil galleries with fine camshaft shavings. Hope you had better luck. Bill

 

sorry about the lifters.




and WAYYY too many of you fuckers are just turning your rubbers inside out!

 

I would't rule out a oiling problem

 

Man that's heartbreaking. Hang in there and keep us posted on the refresh.

 

I think this is times two.

 

Sorry for your loss. I've never seen lifters with a "Link Bar" what is the reasoning behind that?

 

All roller lifters use either a link bar or some sort of guide to keep them from rotating in their bores.

Flat tappets need to rotate in their bores. Roller lifters are a different deal altogether as they need to stay in one position to allow the roller to stay aligned with the cam and follow the lobe.

 

Roller lifters don't roll very well if they turn sideways............ the link bars hold them in proper alignment to the cam lobes.

 

In the pics it looks like the roller links were hitting the top of the lifter bores. I think the lifters were fine and the interference caused all the buttons to be wiped off the lifters. In the pics you can see the broken peices of block in the location with not enough clearence.

 

HI - There was plenty of link bar clearence. What you see in the pictures, that appears to be broken pieces of block, is cast into the top edges of the bores.

SUPER PLUS - Oil pressure was fine...galleries/lifters were full...

 

hummm...I'll ask the uncle what he was running....

 

Cam walk ?

 

I have read all the posts on this thread and I am a bit surprised that no one has raised the issue of using a roller lifter with a flat tappet cam. As has been mentioned, the flat tappet cam/lifter makes contact between the cam lobe and the lifter face off-center so that the lifter will spin in the bore. It is my understanding that a roller cam lobe is centered and thus the roller on the lifter fully contacts the face of the cam lobe and has no spinning action applied. I am not a "cam expert" but I have always made sure that I never mixed flat tappet cams and roller lifters.

 

I would think so too.Also I think roler cams have a different profile due to the geometry of the roller and cam.

 

I don't see a flat tappet cam mentioned in any of Desoto's posts.

He does mention that the cam was a Chet Herbert cam and made from American steel (versus iron for a flat-tappet cam). Mr. Herbert was one of the pioneers of roller cam technology back in the '50s.

 

The OP didn't say it was a flat tappet cam.

I do, however, wonder about how well the link bars were holding the lifters in line, cam walk would be a good bet as well (he should have a good torington bearing or at least a bronze bushing between the cam gear and block with a properly loaded cam button holding everything in check) and I also wonder about valve spring coil bind and valve guide/seal to retainer clearance at max valve lift. Ummm an outside chance that the valves are touchnig the pistons? Its possible to have light impact and not be the wiser. The list goes on.....

It seems a little early to blame the cheap parts with the motor still assembled and the root cause of the failure not really nailed down yet.

 

the cheap parts were made in china though, so I have already lit my torch and joined the angry mob outside.

 

This is the 2nd one that has come apart on me.

 

Funny thing, I was just reading a thread on speedtalk this morning (when I should have been working) about cam cores cast here in the US. I think the foundry cast "CWC" into 'em, but I don't want to call it as fact in case I'm remembering the name wrong.

Anyway, the word from guys who do the cam grinding was that this foundry casts cores for multiple companies; some of the companies spec good stuff; others don't. But the parts are all "Made In America", and carry the same foundry's mark. You've got to look at the number stamped in, and happen to be 'in the know' to know what you're looking at.

I used to be involved importing stuff from Taiwan, and was just talking to a manufacturer (and H.A.M.B. member) who has stuff tooled in China. We've both seen so many guys have real problems when they put something out to quote at ten shops, and pick the cheapest one.

Then people blame the country of origin. Let's blame the guy who purchases junk from the lowest bidder and re-sells it. Regardless of where he got it from.

But, I'm not gonna' bash you for taking the risk. A lot of the older grinds were a lot more gentle in their dynamcs; they had to be, because they didn't have the killer valve springs back then.

So, you should IN THEORY be able to get by with a less expensive lifter, since the grind is probably able to run with less spring pressure.

I'm gonna' cross my fingers for you that none of the lifters scored up a lifter bore, or came up and out causing a drop in oil pressure, and that the 'play-doh' rollers didn't gouge up the cam.

-Bill

 

Thanks for the quick reply, I thought that might be the reason. Is that the cheap way of doing things, wouldn't a broched bore with a key be the better way of doing this? Yes, I know it would be costly.

 

...Not to mention the fact that most of the remaining "good" lifteres are collapsed and don't hold pressure. From the look of one set of lifters, the roller wasn't rolling, then the link bar bent/broke when the lifter turned. The other set appears to have popped a link retainer, allowing the lifter(s) to turn. The remaining sets "appear" to be fine however, as stated, most don't hold oil pressure. The rest of the engine is right on the money...it's the lifters that shit the bed...period. Even if the 2 sets didn't grenade, it would only have been a matter of time before the engine wouldn't run...due to the collapsed lifters...

 

345, I dont know if your in PSL or in NY with the hemi, but I am a retired race engine builder of 30 years, and yes some of that is with the old hemi's, if your in Fla., I would be glad to take a ride down and see if I can shed some light or just offer some friendly advice, just let me know if I can help. I am just a half hour north of you. Sorry about the dilema, anything I can do to help, except a bag a money of course.