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.

 

[c.moo]

Had a 2011 dodge ram pickup gen 3 hemi it wiped out a cam and roller lifter on number 5 , it had 125,000 miles on it and seems to be common problem on gen 3 Hemi's , , they say it's not changing oil on time ,letting the engine idle to long , coating on cam flaking off etc and they say update it with a hellcat oil pump. It's not just a problem with the older stuff.

 

[stillrunners]

1999.......

 

[BSB67]

Probably longer! Reason I'm asking is I found 4 boxes of new lifters that have been in the cabinet since the late 80's early 90's and wondering if I should throw them on the scrap pile.

I think you have good lifters there. I would use them.

I also think that you could sell them for more than you can buy new ones.

 

[Unkle Krusty]

1967 talks about imported stuff. Edelbrock says they make all their stuff in the US. Either way, it is bad news when new stuff fails. I was making 100 hp per liter in 1974. Bike motor.
Took it easy for about two laps of the track, and that was harder than any street riding. New cam, springs, valves, pistons.

 

[Gunner1]

In the late 80s/early 90s I worked for a large volume engine rebuilder in LA. We averaged 80 engines a day. Most were shipped to Pep Boys. I worked in warranty and did all the trackings of failure trends. I would say about 92 we started seeing a more than under 1% lifter failures. So I had to pull build sheets to see who assembled it and what parts were used. We did that for inventory control. What we found were minimal failures on Johnson’s but the other 2 who I have forgotten one was up but the third had spiked. Under the microscope we found tiny imperfections all over the machined surfaces. Like pitting, I did use a ball drop Brinell tester and I remember they were within spec. I quit there and opened my own shop. I built mostly 283/327 and 427/454s numbers matching for the restoration guys. Did that for 10 years. About 1 to 2 motors a week. I used only Isky and Elgin cams and lifters. I used black high pressure moly grease on lobes and lifters. I can’t remember a single lobe failure.

 

[toolmanmike]

solids lifters junk too?

A member on FABO resurfaces them. It would be smart to send a new set his way to be corrected. Sean @NC Engine Builder

 

[Kern Dog]

A member on FABO resurfaces them. It would be smart to send a new set his way to be corrected. Sean @NC Engine Builder

Thanks. That is helpful because it may give some people peace of mind to send their stuff to a somewhat familiar person.
I have been pulling hydraulic lifters out of used engines just for this purpose. It seems to me that if they were still working and not showing any heavy wear, they should be able to be reconditioned to be used again.
I think someone here blamed fast rate of lift cams for the failures. I'm no expert but it seems like a perfect storm lately, one that seems as if we are outright daring our stuff to fail. Aggressive cam profiles, Chinese parts built to a lower price point, really stiff springs, oil of questionable quality too.

 

[padam]

Does anyone know what material lifters are made from, and what the heat treat / hardness properties are?

 

[Gunner1]

Just a thought but on motors with really aggressive flanks I would put the lifters in the 3 jaw Chuck on the lathe. I would use a very sharp tip and scribe a .005 deep line from the oil supply band down the side of the lifter to the face, don’t know if it helped but those big 430 horse 427 cams all lived.

 

[Kern Dog]

Just a thought but on motors with really aggressive flanks I would put the lifters in the 3 jaw Chuck on the lathe. I would use a very sharp tip and scribe a .005 deep line from the oil supply band down the side of the lifter to the face, don’t know if it helped but those big 430 horse 427 cams all lived.

Like this?

 

[eldubb440]

pretty sure I have the Crane anti pump up lifters I ran in a 383 40 years ago.... I probably have the cam too.... now I'm curious