Have you had a new cam fail in the last 2 years?

I Borrowed the following from Doc Fromoder. This is interesting stuff. It may explain the rash of flat cams that the oil additive packages have been blamed for. This came from Doc's web site www.webrodder .com
I have uncovered a serious problem with some aftermarket parts that may well affect you. I am working on a story about this and how to cover your collective butts, but for now I want to let you know that if you’ve had a ‘cam’ failure in the last few years or are wanting to avoid one, you should look to the lifters.

Some brand name, traditionally quality lifter makers moved their production over to India and China and quality control fell apart. Others were just made by knock-off companies. The reason was a competition to produce the least expensive product, and somewhere along the way quality became a casualty. Failure rates according to my information range between 40 and 90%. Most are the result of inferior cast iron alloys where components were deleted or not used in the correct quantities, resulting in soft or spotty hardness of the lifter foot and early failures. Some failures have been the result of incorrect casting technique – a cast iron lifter MUST be poured individually with the bottom of the casting being the foot of the lifter because the hardening components of the alloy are designed to precipitate to the foot, creating the proper hardness where it needs to be. Some Chinese lifters were cast in long bars, sliced and machined. That left a hard stripe down one side…
Not only were there bad lifters in terms of quality, but many manufacturers have begun to reduce their inventories, substituting incompatible lifters. The lifters fit in the holes, but there are other problems. Nailheads were supplied with crowned lifters instead of the flat style they were designed for and this results in excessive wear. Buick 455 lifters were dropped and big block Chevy lifters substituted. This worked OK, except Buick designed the lifters with an annulus band (the wide reduced diameter band on the outside) in terms of width and location to control the oil flow to the top end. At lower rpm they work OK, but as rpm increases, the unrestricted flow when using the BB Chevy lifters dumps most of the oil in the valve covers and valley and starves the bottom end – wiped bearings. Others have differences in OD that, along with wear in the lifter bores, creates a big oil leak that drops oil pressure.

Another issue is that the big suppliers know about this problem and are stuck with the lifters. Indian law prohibits returning parts, and the companies involved are trying to cut their losses. So as the word has gotten out, some unscrupulous suppliers are now telling people they are shipping Johnson lifters and shipping the potentially junk offshore stuff instead. Since most people do not know how to identify a real Johnson, the trick works. They can blame the cam, they can blame the oil, they can blame you for not doing the right work, using the right bearings, or even not breaking the engine in right and enough people are buying this that the scam is covering expenses. Proving them wrong is expensive so most people will just bend over and take it. Lawsuits are in the offing I understand, however, from some larger users.

You can protect yourself from this by using Johnson lifters or Delphi lifters, both made in the USA and at this point neither has had any failure issues. Having visited the Johnson plant and seeing their quality control area (22 separate tests on EVERY lifter to identify and weed out faulty lifters) and knowing that they still get their castings made from the same US company as always, means I trust them. Yes, you’ll pay a couple bucks more, but if just ONE fails you will have many times the cost of the lifters involved in repairing your engine. So you have my personal recommendation – something I do not give lightly – as to how to avoid ruined valvetrains.

There are other parts problems these days, but in general we’ve been making a mistake. The competition for sales and the bean-counter’s obsession with the bottom line, combined with our misplaced confidence that this does not have a negative affect on quality or availability, came together in a crap storm. Now we are paying the price. At this stage of the game, if you are building an engine you’d better be aware that saving a few bucks could cost you an engine. You’d better find out what the real source of those parts is and decide whether you want to take a chance on the cheapest price. We have to realize that in today’s international markets not everyone has the same business ethics, or quality obligations, or legal recourse as we in the US do. Not everyone is even remotely interested in following our lead. Considering the current government interference in and taxation of our businesses, the extreme difficulty in making US businesses competitive when other parts of! the world AREN’T ham-stringing their businesses with unproductive regulation, work rules, and taxes, this isn’t going to get much better until we come to our senses. OK. So we got complacent and got suckered, but if we turn our brains back on this can be prevented. It just isn’t easy to admit this and pull it together.

 

Same chit I have been preaching right along. IUf you buy cheap parts you get cheap parts.
I haven't had a cam flatten on me. Well short of the india law thing.
Even on a good came you have to break it in right. My theory is that if it makes it through a proper break in you have no worries. Of course I'm probably the most optomistic synic in thew world.

 

I've had two cams go bad the first I used the cam company's lifters it lasted 20 min during fast idle 3000 rpm. It looked like a broom stick,sent it back to be checked they said it wasn't the cams fault, a the second used GM lifters after that the cam company sent me a bulletin about oil, I now use roller cams if possible Rottella T and break-in additive and cross my fingers. It isn't about cost on my part.

 

Rotella T is an option, but even it has changed the last 2 years. Oil companies have pulled zinc on phospurus OUT of their oils. GM quick making the additive. a MUST read article for flat tappet lifter/cam guys.



http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/flat_tappet_cam_tech/index.html

 

I lost one in a 350.