Finally got the valves out of a old ford flathead hoping to salvage a set of Johnson adjustable lifters. Upon removal I find 2 of the 16 are cracked. 1 across the face and 1 in between the oblong openings in the side. This has me leary of using the remaining 14 although they appear okay after a visual inspection. Just wondered if any of you guys might be willing to share any advise? I'm wondering what caused the failure of those 2.
I would suspect that the cracked ones were done in by something like turning over the engine against a totally rusted valve or someone hammering a rusted valve with cam lobe up rather than by anything in normal use...but of course that is a pure guess. Was the engine siezed up?? Any history? I can't see anything close to stock normal operation breaking one. They just don't have to work very hard.
Bruce, The old motor was siezed. A 59Y block that powed a stock car back in the 50's. Salvaged a weber flywheel and a merc crank from the same motor. 3 & 7/16 bore. Previous owner sold the heads and intake then moved it outside (unfortunately).
I sent my original Johnson lifters out to H & H Flatheads and Mike Herman did a good job regrinding them at a reasonable price. I am running a new cam etc. Be careful using the old cam with reground lifters. You might run into problems with excessive cam or lifter wear.
Had a new set of adjustables in a 8ba I built a couple of years ago. One of the valve seats came out with less than 900 miles on the engine. When I tore it down I found four of the lifters with hair line cracks across the face, I think the mfg name on the box was Genee or something like that. Called where I had bought them and they no longer carried that brand, sent me a new set and after 5000 + miles no problems. Guess the valve seat saved the cam but would have probably been cheaper to repair a bad camshaft. Vergil
Johnsons always were prone to cracking .Be clever ,stellite braze the tops of a stock lifter up then grind to suit clearence.cheaper ,never needs doing again till the next valve grind ,its easy on lobes and lighter on springs .WIN WIN !
Coming out of a racing engine they most likely broke from valve float. Very common. They are way too heavy for racing and in the old days it was common to use springs that did not have enough pressure for the rpm intended. It would not be safe to use any of the set again. The stock steel hollow lifters are the best. You can either weld up the lifter or the valve stem to adjust them. No worries then till the next rebuild. "Been in the cam business over 50 years"
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