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Lunati Cam/lifter went flat during break in

Lunati told me that I had a lifter bore issue…I guess it’s possible.
It's possible. I do believe that some people don't check their lifter bores carefully, and burrs on them cause lifter problems that wipe cams. However, I also believe much of the problem is with lifters. You sound like the type that checked things carefully, so I would lean more to suspecting the lifters.

My father-in-law just had a 302 Z-28 Chevy engine wipe cam and a (solid) lifter on startup. He heard an increase in tapping and immediately shut it down. He has been building engines for a living since the late 1960's and cars he has worked on have set more than 9 NHRA records - the guy knows how to build and start an engine! Everything was done absolutely by the book, although he felt it would be fine to start up with 102# seated pressure springs. Sure enough, when we tore it apart, #7 intake lobe and lifter was wearing quickly. I suspect that the lifters were not properly shaped on the bottom to make them spin.

Anyway, lesson learned. The motor had to be torn apart, checked, cleaned, etc. and he will be replacing the lifters with ones that have an oiling hole on the bottom, plus we put very weak springs in the heads for startup.
 
The interesting part is that both the original poster and myself were replacing cams in an engine that was running fine with another cam. That kind of eliminates a lifter bore issue in my mind.
 
Well it finally happened to me. I have been breaking in cams in for years without issue. 15 minutes into break-in engine started hammering. Pulled intake and found this on #5 exhaust. It went down fast, sent shavings throughout the engine. I used Driven break-in oil and assembly grease. Engine fired pretty quick and I went straight to 2200rpm.

440 .060
Icon pistons
RPM heads
Lunati Voodoo 704 cam
Lunati Micro-tol lifters

View attachment 1434586
Last winter I decided to refresh my 440 with a better cam setup. I called Scott at Competition Components whom I have done business with in the past and told him I would like to go with a little bigger cam than what he sold me before. Scott highly recommended going with a hydraulic roller cam because of all the issues with lifters and cams going bad during break in. Scott told me with the Roller cam there's no break-in period and no need for special break-in oil. So I purchased a roller cam from him and it's the best thing I could have done, yes they are a little more expensive but oh man did it ever wake my RT up
 
Last winter I decided to refresh my 440 with a better cam setup. I called Scott at Competition Components whom I have done business with in the past and told him I would like to go with a little bigger cam than what he sold me before. Scott highly recommended going with a hydraulic roller cam because of all the issues with lifters and cams going bad during break in. Scott told me with the Roller cam there's no break-in period and no need for special break-in oil. So I purchased a roller cam from him and it's the best thing I could have done, yes they are a little more expensive but oh man did it ever wake my RT up
I was talking to Schneider Cams last week and they had the same cautionary tone when talking about FT cams. I almost pulled the trigger on one of their hyd rollers. What did Competition Components spec for you?
 
I lightly increased RPMs to around 2500 a few times, the fans cut on twice and dropped RPMs a bit but never below 2000.
So if you were to chart the RPMS. Are you saying it'd look more like a slow rolling hills country road when I'm talking about it looking like a EKG chart of a person on a treadmill.
You got to bounce it all over the RPM range and quickly too. I bet that's the failure on your part!
 
I was talking to Schneider Cams last week and they had the same cautionary tone when talking about FT cams. I almost pulled the trigger on one of their hyd rollers. What did Competition Components spec for you?
I still wanted to run my stock exhaust manifolds which Scott said was fine as he has a Cam specifically for cars with stock exhaust manifolds. Cam Gring is a 235/250HR9, Lobe lift is .375 intake .365 exhaust, rockers are 1.6, valve lift .600 intake .584 exhaust, Adv. Dur. 288 intake 304 exhaust, [email protected] 235 intake 250 exhaust, lobe centerline 105.0 intake 113.0 exhaust, valve timing @0.050 Int open 13.0 BTDC Closed 43.0 ABDC, EXH open 58.0 BBDC, closed 12.0 ATDC. Spring Pressure 150 seat 375 open Lobe separation 109. I'm running 440 source heads, edelbrock performer rpm intake and a edelbrock 650 AVS 2 carb and a Pertronix Flame thrower 3 distributor. Scott likes a little more exhaust valve lift as you can see by the .250 for cars that run their stock exhaust manifolds. I'm also running 2 1/2 inch H pipes. This set up runs fantastic I wish I had done it sooner. Scott uses Morel Rollers which are probably the best on the market and I got my pushrods from Smith brothers who were great to deal with as I had my push rods in 5 days, talk about service.
 
Here’s one from last summer.
Melling cam(same grind as the smaller summit cam, .442/.465 lift), genuine Hylift Johnson lifters(shipped direct from them), Stealth heads, stock rockers.
Broken in with Driven oil, on the dyno.

Lasted thru one summer.
Only this one lifter has an issue. The other 15 are all fine.

I didn’t take the pic....... I’m not responsible for the “art work”.

034F60F7-B1DD-4FF5-94B6-B7CC70DF81C9.png
 
My dad built a 408 2 years ago with a lunati cam. Everything was fine. A year ago he changed the heads to Trick Flow 190s. After 3 weekends of racing the #8 cylinder wall developed a crack. He took everything out of that block and out in put in a new block. 2 weekends of racing later 5 or 6 lifters were being chewed up. Lifters were installed in same location as they were removed from other block, etc. Ending up buying a racer brown cam and Howard lifters. He checked and all lifters were spinning during assembly process, but haven’t started the engine yet to break the cam in.
 
Well it finally happened to me. I have been breaking in cams in for years without issue. 15 minutes into break-in engine started hammering. Pulled intake and found this on #5 exhaust. It went down fast, sent shavings throughout the engine. I used Driven break-in oil and assembly grease. Engine fired pretty quick and I went straight to 2200rpm.

440 .060
Icon pistons
RPM heads
Lunati Voodoo 704 cam
Lunati Micro-tol lifters

View attachment 1434586
Dayam!! And the lifters were made where??
 
I noticed in those videos of shops testing cams and lifters that a couple mentioned lifters that weren't
"square" across the tops - meaning I suppose the horizontal top of the lifter wasn't perfectly 90 degrees
from the side of them?
I'd imagine that would put a side strain on a cam lobe, eh?
 
I still wanted to run my stock exhaust manifolds which Scott said was fine as he has a Cam specifically for cars with stock exhaust manifolds. Cam Gring is a 235/250HR9, Lobe lift is .375 intake .365 exhaust, rockers are 1.6, valve lift .600 intake .584 exhaust, Adv. Dur. 288 intake 304 exhaust, [email protected] 235 intake 250 exhaust, lobe centerline 105.0 intake 113.0 exhaust, valve timing @0.050 Int open 13.0 BTDC Closed 43.0 ABDC, EXH open 58.0 BBDC, closed 12.0 ATDC. Spring Pressure 150 seat 375 open Lobe separation 109. I'm running 440 source heads, edelbrock performer rpm intake and a edelbrock 650 AVS 2 carb and a Pertronix Flame thrower 3 distributor. Scott likes a little more exhaust valve lift as you can see by the .250 for cars that run their stock exhaust manifolds. I'm also running 2 1/2 inch H pipes. This set up runs fantastic I wish I had done it sooner. Scott uses Morel Rollers which are probably the best on the market and I got my pushrods from Smith brothers who were great to deal with as I had my push rods in 5 days, talk about service.
So if you were to chart the RPMS. Are you saying it'd look more like a slow rolling hills country road when I'm talking about it looking like a EKG chart of a person on a treadmill.
You got to bounce it all over the RPM range and quickly too. I bet that's the failure on your part!
I was pretty easy on it, nothing like you are describing.
 
The interesting part is that both the original poster and myself were replacing cams in an engine that was running fine with another cam. That kind of eliminates a lifter bore issue in my mind.
Yeah, it seems that the cam manufacturers are as honest about their products as a politician is. They act surprised when their products fail and always want to blame the installer.
 
@PRHeads, have you had a chance to test those new comp Hyd roller lifters other than the one big mopar you dyno’d last fall? Those sounded like a good option from that test.
 
Now I’m eating lunch, and nervously reading this thread, with my new cam set at the table :lol:

View attachment 1435443
If I'm seeing the box correctly that looks like a roller cam set, if so you have nothing to worry about. If it's a flat tappet I would return it if possible and get a roller kit, I have a hydraulic roller and it's the best thing I could have bought
 
Well it finally happened to me. I have been breaking in cams in for years without issue. 15 minutes into break-in engine started hammering. Pulled intake and found this on #5 exhaust. It went down fast, sent shavings throughout the engine. I used Driven break-in oil and assembly grease. Engine fired pretty quick and I went straight to 2200rpm.

440 .060
Icon pistons
RPM heads
Lunati Voodoo 704 cam
Lunati Micro-tol lifters

View attachment 1434586
WOW! That's not good. And that was with a high zinc and phosphate oil?
 
If I'm seeing the box correctly that looks like a roller cam set, if so you have nothing to worry about. If it's a flat tappet I would return it if possible and get a roller kit, I have a hydraulic roller and it's the best thing I could have bought
I've seen some running and some are REALLY noisy....and not in a good way. The theoretical advantages of a hydraulic are quiet operation and no adjustment needed. The loud ones I heard sound terrible.
 
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