Technical Break in oil was not enough

Tried to break in the new cam and all was well through the 20 minutes but after I let it idle to adjust everything a miss shown up about 5 minutes later and popping through the carb so a intake lobe has gone,pulled the valve covers and did find it on the pass side so not sure on what I am going to do now but might just look for a used engine. For those 5 minutes it idled better then it ever had and it was a name brand cam but might look for a roller lifter block if this is the way its going to be with cheap parts and materials.

 

Bummer

 

Sorry. Rollers are the only sure way

 

Welcome to the club of failed flat tappet cams. This seems to be common place nowdays! Crap parts, most likely. I am in the club also.
Bill

 

That just sucks. Now when a new engine is started it like a leap of faith..

 

I sometimes wonder about this breakin oil.... I built a few 44o Mopars over the last few years and never used any special oils... In fact I had a ole Dodge truck that had over 200 thousand miles and used off the shelf Valvoline oil with no additives... I do believe it has more to do with the quality of the parts than the oils....

 

"counterfeit" lifters...

 

I have a buddy who's lost two cams in the 383 in his hunting truck. Name brand cam, not an aggressive profile, broken in on a dyno, assembled by a reputable builder.

One went flat almost immediately. The other made it a few thousand miles. It has a hydraulic roller in it now.

I believe that metallurgy/quality control is currently that bad.

 

I'm beginning to think that this is all by design, as a way to phase out the cheaper product's (flat tappet cams and components) and phase in the more expensive stuff. (roller equipment) JMO

 

Did you make sure the lifters rotated while turning the engine over?

 

I have another short block that will be gone through and will get roller lifters this time.

 

There are 2 companies that I know of that still build lifters in the US...... I would go with those

 

Contact Schneider cams. Those dudes know their stuff and only sell the best. The "name brand" companies use off shore lifters anymore...

 

Thinking about just grabbing the cam and lifters from the short block and putting them in since its already broke in,the engine is in my 55 sunliner and needs to last long enough to get a Y block ready to go in.

 

Don't do it the motor is full of metal.

 

What engine did this happen to? Small Block Ford?

 

I would like the name of those companies . If you know them thanks

 

My Johnsons were made in the USA!

 

I have brand new set of Comp Cams solid flat tappets I never used. Decided to get my Johnson flat tappets reground. I have 145 lbs. on the seat and 360 open valve spring pressure.

Johnson doesn't make flat tappets anymore, although you can find them nos on eBay......

 

Running Johnson’s lifters.
No issues 18 months in
5 years ago we built a 350 with Elgin.
No issues with those either.

 

Please , list all the specifics pertinent to your can troubles . You may help keep someone from going through the same ordeal !

 

What did you apply to the lobes on assembly? Has it heavy valve springs? Break in oil had high zinc?

 

I've probably installed 50 FT cams over the years and no failures. With the stock cars, I have done a couple installations, a minimal break in and off to the track. The last dozen cams, I went to the trouble to pre-oil the engine and make sure I have oil at each rocker. The one in my 355 we did that, used VR1 oil (10w-30 at the engine builder's suggestion) and a bottle of cam break-in oil. That was on the Lunati cam card. I followed the Lunati instructions and dumped the oil and filter right after. I drove the car 250 miles, rinse repeat on the oil and filter.

 

Hate to tell ya. Folks are having issues with roller lifters as well.

 

It got assembly lube and pre oiled a few times before dropping the distributor back in and I made sure it was getting oil to ever rocker arm. And break in oil too.

 

What cam & lifters did you use?
Have you contacted the manufacturer? What did they say?
Don't be passive and accept junk quality as a "new norm" and merely throw it in the trash like a lot of folks are nowadays. Put it on the manufacturer and see what they have to say/offer.
Then please share the brand and your experience with their tech/customer service support with your fellow car guys.

 

I wonder about this too. I know a lot people use "assembly lube" of one kind or another, but not all assembly lube is good for cam lobes.
I've always used a good thick coating of molybdenum disulphide grease. It is thick, black, and sticky. Also, making sure the engine will fire quickly without having to crank on it too long.
Dozens of motors built over nearly 50 years, including my OT drag race motors with nearly 200lbs of seat pressure, (flat tappet, wide face) and not a single lifter/cam lobe failure.
But, I do have to do the voodoo rain dance to appease the gods of speed before fire up!

 

Most of the roller lifter failures have been with modern roller lifter engines. And most of those were because computer controlled engines dropped cylinders at cruising speeds, which created strange affect on the valve train, and caused lifters to fail. Chevrolet LS engines have had this issue, and many have had lifters fail under warranty. I was told by a Chevrolet mechanic that the root cause was the computer dropping cylinders, and although Chevrlet doesn't recommend it, a simple plug in device to keep the computer from dropping cylinders at cruise speed will eliminate lifter failure issues.
A lot of people don't know that the factory lifters in a SBC roller motor are exactly the same as those used in an LS motor. But the earlier engines didn't drop cylinders, and had no lifter failures.

 

I've never pulled a used cam and lifters out of one block and installed them in another, but I'd be interested in comments of those who have done it. It seems to me that manufacturing tolerances of lifter bore locations, cam thrust face on the block, thrust face of the timing gear, etc. would tend to alter the cam/lifter interface slightly where the lifters wouldn't ride on the cam in the exact spot that they did on the donor engine. Wouldn't this variance doom the hardware?