Who has NEVER had a cam or lifter go bad?

[Charged440]

So far so good here, one thing I do that I don't really read about is using moly paste and massaging it into the lobes and the bottom of the lifters. The last one I did came with this runny red lube that you are supposed to use on the cam and lifters, didn't even consider using it.

 

[mmissile]

Nope, no cam issues.

 

[6PKRTSE]

Nope, none here either. Never wiped any lobes or lifters. Knock on wood and that is with over 75 vehicles in my life time. Almost all of my rebuilds are for more power and performance.

However, I did break a cam on the #4 journal one time in a 440 just driving down the road. Seemed like it was running on 6 cylinders. Drove it home 20+ miles 2 footing it at red lights. Found it spun the #4 cam bearing, locked the cam and broke it. Pulled the rocker covers and fired it up. Cylinders 7&8 rockers were not moving.

 

[Kern Dog]

That is wild!

 

[horace]

Always stock cams & lifters with zero ptoblems

 

[70chall440]

Never had an issue

 

[dart4forte]

There were a few places that offered this service but I lost contact with them. Who do you use?

Oregon Cam, Portland Oregon area. I have had them do several sets for me. Been around a long time. Also, Delta Cams in Tacoma, WA

 

[dart4forte]

One of the thing we must do post Covid is check the so called new parts. Poor quality control and materials cause problems. Most lifters these days are off shore meaning Chinesium. I had an old Stock Eliminator racer teach me to check the mating surface of new lifters. Lifters machined correctly should have a crown on the bottom of the lifter where it meets the cam lobe. If you take two lifters and abutt them together the shouldn’t sit flat, actually rock back and forth. This crown allows the lifter to spin and mate to the cam lobe during break in. If the lifter base is flat don’t use it.

Another problem is allowing a fresh motor to idle excessively. What happens with that is the cam is not getting the correct amount of lubrication and the lifter is not spinning. Seen cams go away from letting the motor idle. Best to not idle a lot for the first 500 miles of motor break in.

 

[beanhead]

I've never had any issues, thank goodness....maybe I've just been lucky?
But, I've always stuck to a pretty strict list of pre-checks. I even had one FT break-in go very bad, with tha carb flooding and way too much cranking...and that one held up well.

 

[a70duster]

I was about 12 for 12 until 3 years ago. I built a bit spicy 350 Chevy, with a hydraulic cam/lifters with around 0.5" lift. Exhaust cam lobe #8 got wiped out pretty quickly (Summit cam). I replaced it with a similar Comps cam and everything was fine after break-in.

I avoided one on a 383 with a 440 crank. The cam/lifters came out of another 383 and had about 150 1/4 mile runs on it. I was damn sure I kept the lifters in order. I treated it like a new cam break-in. This time I started the engine and two of us verified that all the lifters were rotating. Number 2 exhaust did not rotate. I replaced just that lifter and tried it again, no luck. The new lifter didn't rotate either.

I measured the taper on the cam and ALL lobes had about 0.002". Not sure why the lifter didn't rotate.

The engine didn't run for more than 25 seconds. This kept the lifter from getting chewed up.



This is how I will break-in any future B/RB engines.

 

[a70duster]

There were a few places that offered this service but I lost contact with them. Who do you use?

This guy refaces lifters.

 

[ckessel]

This guy refaces lifters.

He has quite a few vids on the tube. Awesome dude and info he's putting out.