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

[Geoff 2]

I agree, lubrication is not necessarily the issue. But for peace of mind, I modify the lifters as shown in post #34.

 

[Kern Dog]

Lubrication may not be the issue in the majority of cases but it is worth attention.
I put a '528 solid in my 440/493 in 2014. It had the Howards EDM lifters. For years I ran Royal Purple, then Valvoline VR1 with a bottle of Comp Cams break in supplement. Early 2022, I switched to a synthetic that supposedly had "added zinc". I didn't drive it all that much until the 950 mile trip to Southern CA and back in May. Just over a week after that trip, the cam shed several lobes with 10 total going bad after closer inspection.
The parts did not change. My driving habits didn't either. The only change was to the bullshit oil...

But...it has EXTRA ZDDP !

Unfortunately, the high detergent found in oil with this API label...

Meant that whatever ZDDP was in the oil was not going to stick to anything since the oil was high detergent.
Lesson learned there. The right oil absolutely matters.

 

[Geoff 2]

Lake Speed, the Motor Oil Geek, has interesting videos on oil...& zinc. It is about 20 min, maybe somebody can link it. Oil with 1200ppm Zinc was used with FT cam, no issues.
Then a Zinc 'supplement' with 3600 ppm Zinc was added to the oil. Cam/lifters failed soon afterwards.
Moral of the story: get the correct oil & do not add supplements which can & will destroy the sensitive chemical oil package.

 

[Unkle Krusty]

I have to inspect my 318. But, the switch to solid lifters involves? I will assume the solid lifters replace the hydraulic units. Now there must be some form of adjustment. I switched to adjustable pushrods earlier. However I think that is not the answer. So there must be some other changes to be made to the rocker, and the new rocker has the adjustment.
And, is there any more noise from this arrangement?
A steady tapping from all the rockers, would be more acceptable than the single ticking sound that I now have.

 

[padam]

I have to inspect my 318. But, the switch to solid lifters involves? I will assume the solid lifters replace the hydraulic units. Now there must be some form of adjustment. I switched to adjustable pushrods earlier. However I think that is not the answer. So there must be some other changes to be made to the rocker, and the new rocker has the adjustment.
And, is there any more noise from this arrangement?
A steady tapping from all the rockers, would be more acceptable than the single ticking sound that I now have.

You need adjustable rocker arms and the proper push rods, so it’s not cheap.
Many a little noisy but not more than the Rhoads hydraulic lifters I was using before. Just get louder mufflers.