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.

 

[Kern Dog]

Only once in a car I helped out with. Lost 2 lobes off a 528 solid MP cam that was 25 years ago. Pulled the motor and went through it and there was ZERO damage to the bearings. After seeing that we should have just pulled the radiator and shoved a new one in as the filter caught it all.

In 2022 when my '528 lost a few lobes, the bearings looked like new too. I saw no grit in the lifter valley, none in other places either. It may have been there but I didn't see it.
The oil did have a silvery sheen to it. The oil filter was cut open for inspection. There was plenty of crud in the pleats. I was tempted to just stab another cam in it but I took the occasion to replace the pistons to gain quench and lower compression at the same time.
I am still on the fence about whether I want to step up to a roller cam or try another flat tappet. I am tired of the clatter of the solid cams. The one I have now is probably great for a drag racer but I want a cam with a lower RPM power range.

 

[1STMP]

I've rebuilt 5.
AMC 401, 360 (Comp Cams/lifters)
Ford 302, 289 (TRW Cam/lifters)
Mopar 440 (TRW Cam/lifters)
Both the Ford and AMC engines have hyd flats w/
stock springs. Cams bumped up, but nothing too
crazy. (no ZDDP additive). No cam or lifter failures.
The 440 set up the same (w/ZDDP after reading some
horror stories here).
At break-in, the dreaded lifter tick. Removed the valve
cover to find two bent pushrods (one punched thru the
rocker). Didn't notice the two inch long cracks at each
bolt hole in the rocker shafts. Replaced rocker shaft assy's
w/new pushrods. No cam damage. Engine running good
after 500 miles run.

 

[horace]

I never had a came go bad, mostly 383, a 400, some 361, a few 440s!!! & a couple 5.7 hemis

 

[Kern Dog]

The prospect of refacing lifters is interesting.
Some claim that lifters have failed due to possible metal issues. I've seen some evidence that the metal isn't softer but I'm not sold on that.
For all of his faults, Uncle Tony did a video a few years back on this. He bought some lifters from a store near him and he found several of them had almost no crown in them. If this was true, it seems that if everything else is okay with the lifter, refacing should render the lifter a viable option.
If the lifter functions properly but a lack of crown wouldn't induce rotation, fixing the crown should be all that is needed.
Taking it a step further, if refacing the lifters is a viable option, why not save every lifter that you pull from an engine? Solid lifters too...
If people do believe that old metal is better than anything new, old used lifters could be disassembled, cleaned then refaced, right?
Solid lifters are simpler so they should need nothing more than cleaning and refacing.

 

[Photon440]

The prospect of refacing lifters is interesting.
Some claim that lifters have failed due to possible metal issues. I've seen some evidence that the metal isn't softer but I'm not sold on that.
For all of his faults, Uncle Tony did a video a few years back on this. He bought some lifters from a store near him and he found several of them had almost no crown in them. If this was true, it seems that if everything else is okay with the lifter, refacing should render the lifter a viable option.
If the lifter functions properly but a lack of crown wouldn't induce rotation, fixing the crown should be all that is needed.
Taking it a step further, if refacing the lifters is a viable option, why not save every lifter that you pull from an engine? Solid lifters too...
If people do believe that old metal is better than anything new, old used lifters could be disassembled, cleaned then refaced, right?
Solid lifters are simpler so they should need nothing more than cleaning and refacing.

Of course, it would depend on how much metal is left for resurfacing. I've seen a lot of lifters that no longer had a crown, they had worn concave. Also some GM lifters that have worn right through to make a hole. But I agree that a lifter in good shape could easily be machined and re-used.

 

[Kern Dog]

I would think that any lifter that had worn enough to concave is way too far gone anyway.
My thoughts are to new lifters and used lifters that are not worn. I have a few engines here with original lifters. It is tempting to pull them to have them resurfaced and stowed away until the day comes that I'd need them.

 

[Gunner1]

I’ve worked for engine machine shops who did one or two motors a day to a major supplier of motors to pep boys at a rate of 80 to 100 a day. When I opened my own shop I supplied motors to a company that specialized in NCRS vette motors as well as Camaro and chevelles 265s to 454s. Maybe 800 motors in the 10 years I did that. I learned a couple of tricks along the way. First thing was to use a flex hone brush used to clean brake wheel cylinders on the lifter bores. Then I had a lifter welded to a piece of all thread. I ground a couple of groove on the sides and used a drill to burnish the lifter bores. I used mostly Elgin cams and bought Johnson lifters by the tray. If not Elgins the Isky was my go to. I also would take a tray and put a lifter in the lathe. I would lightly .005 drag the cutting tool down the lifter wall from the oil groove to the face. This gave me a controlled leak to the lifter/cam interface. Last thing was I used black molybdenum high pressure line on the cam and lifters. The rest was normal valve guide/spring bind/retainer to seal clearance. I was lucky. Not one. but we did see some at the shops.