who is running MRL (BAM) Lifters without lifter bore sleeves
Boy did I get an eye-opener last year. I had a 360 engine on my stand with a nice Racer Brown solid lifter cam. My Son needing an engine asked if he could use it BUT he didn't want a solid lifter cam. Well I usually tube my lifter galley and I didn't do it on this block and the short block was already assembled. Having three different sets of roller lifters sitting here I pulled the cam and after trying a 650 lift roller needed to end up running a 610 lift roller the get the needed valve to piston. He had a set on roller lifters so we used them and when I tried priming it on the engine stand oil pressure was terrible. I quit using high volume oil pumps several years ago because of an issue but we pulled the pan and tried one, and pressure was still terrible. We pulled the intake and primed it again and you wouldn't believe the oil shooting out of the lifter bores. I had a new set of MRL lifters so we tried those and it was still TERRIBLE. I then tried a set of 828-16 lifters I had here and it was still bad. With limited time I pull the front of the engine apart and tapped the drivers side front lifter tube and blocked the oil of going to those 8 lifters with a set-screw. Pressure jumped up and the engine is now running low 10's without issues. I will NEVER build another solid or roller lifter engine again without tubing the lifter galley and blocking the other side.