At what point did NEW lifters become junk out of the box and were.......

[Geoff 2]

Some time in the 90s, FT lifters went south. Hard to pinpoint an actual date. If you have lifters earlier than this keep em', they are good ones. Using anything bought in recent years...is risking failure.

 

[69”WannaBee”451]

I’m sure there have been “metallurgy” issues over recent years, but a more common issue is flat tappet cams being ground without lobe taper and/or lifters with no crown. I myself have seen 2 Comp cams and one Summit cam in the last 3 years or so that had ZERO lobe taper. If either of those cams were used, they would have wiped lobes during initial break in. In my mind, the only two options are find a NOS 20+ year old cam and lifter set of your choice, or convert to roller.

 

[1967coronet]

I think it has been a combination of things.
1st of course is the imported lifters and cams.
2nd is high spring pressure on the crap lifters and cams.
3rd is the changes in oil chemistry.

So many things have changed since I was a kid,
Heck we used to swap cams and lifters and drive away, no break in ect.
Springs.... ha they were the rev limiter.
Oil was what ever was on tap at the station I worked at.
Beat it , break it, fix it before the next Friday , Saturday night.
I think you have some good lifters cranky.

 

[Cranky]

Cam failures in factory Chevy small blocks began in the mid 80s. I bet I changed nearly 100 of them in 5 years. Some needed to be changed b4 they were sold. Lots never made 4000 miles. Some almost made the warranty period. And some were perfectly fine for way past the warranty period. All we changed were the cam and lifters gaskets and did an oil and filter change. Kim

I remember GM having issues well before anyone else did.....and seems like it was happening for a lot of years before I heard of anyone to have the same issue.