Best hydraulic flat tappet lifter?

nm9stheham said

Thanks, Moper. I always appreciate the insight.

Just for the record.... we have had these additional soft lifter issues show up in:

• A 4.7L Dakota engine.. All new stock replacement lifters in 2014, and some got rattly/noisy in 5-10k miles at start up and one never would quiet down. The original ones from 2003 were all good for 200k miles except for 1 that seemed to be a tad soft on occasion. Always clean oil, Mobil 1.
• Similar issue as above with Mitsubishi 2.6L lifters (followers, in the ends of the rockers). The replacements just would not last well. That was 15 years ago.
• Never had any hydraulics lifters go soft on any engine prior to 10-15 years ago. That included those in my 1.9L Opel rally engines that saw 8k RPM frequently and 7.5k at every 2-3 shift.

I just wrote it off to poorer design and mfr processes for after-market parts until this incident last year with the brand new Crane lifters.

And, I have tied it all in with poorer rebuilds and such coming out of Mexico and overseas.

Click to expand...

Yeah - Maybe I'm just lucky - or it's the human sacrifices I keep up with :) (jk)
There are only one or two manufacturers now - so everyone gets the same quality - or perhaps the better way to say it is they get the level of quality expectation that their contract provides. I don't like the lifters with the stamped steel plunger retainers. Those are Edelbrocks, among others. I find those clips laying on top of the lifter after they pop out... Seen that 3-4 times when replacing camshafts. But I have not seen other issues. They are really simple parts. Not rocket science. The better ones have tighter clearances that yields better control (high rpm).
I've run stock replacement hydro rollers in strong engines before too with no issues. So I really don't know why some have problems. It might be too that some are hearing "a problem" when the only issue is the sound. After 30+ years doing just Mopars, and the vast majority for others, it's been my experience that parts should be the last thing blamed. Bad parts happen. But bad parts choices, bad machining, and/or bad labor practices happen much more often.