Lifter failure

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Craig Burriss

Craig Burriss

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My RamCharger started acting up a few weeks ago. I thought it was an issue with the Holley Sniper EFI that I’ve had so many other issues with, but it turns out one of my lifters decided to wear a hole into itself. Not sure if the cam is hurt or not but I wouldn’t be surprised.
I did a full rebuild on this 440 about 2 years/5000miles ago. This kinda pisses me off.
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Sorry for your troubles. Part is the quality of parts is in the toilet right now.
Very sad. A lot of work for sure.
 
That super sucks. This was a rhoad’s solid lifter after about an hour of run time. Everything was done right but still…

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Yep.

That is why you get a set of used factory lifters.......& get them re-faced to use with a new cam.

Unless you want a second failure......
 
Yeah, the cam is done. As mentioned, you know where the metal went. I hate to say it, but I'd be pulling it.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Yeah, the cam is done. As mentioned, you know where the metal went. I hate to say it, but I'd be pulling it.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, and contrary to popular belief the oil filter won’t save it.
When a cam/lifter does that the metal drops right on the closest rods and crankshaft area.
 
I don’t build engines for customers anymore.
But if I were, none would be built with a flat tappet cam(unless it were a rules thing, and then there’d be zero cam/lifter warranty).

That being said, I would possibly still risk one for myself on a mild enough combo.

I just ordered a HR for a guy who had the fast rate HFT cam in his BB stroker go flat with under 400 miles on it.
 
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generally we check the oil every time the car leaves the garage.

Generally.

Would a magnetic tipped dipstick help early on when the lifters are failing? Early enough that you might not have to pull motor?

I know it won't help the mid shaft bronze gear eating itself.

Just the tip now.
 
A couple of years ago a builder in town had his first flat tappet cam/lifter failure.

Mild 440 build, smaller Summit cam(.442/.465), USA made Hylift Johnson lifters, stealth heads with the as supplied springs, oe rockers.
Broken in on the dyno with Driven BR oil.
Lasted less than 2000 miles.

The symptom was a skip and popping thru the carb.
Pulled the V/C, found an intake pushrod had failed.
It had been rebuilt previously and had a few “parts store” type pushrods in it, and it was one of those that failed.
So, he orders a set of decent pushrods for it and put it back together.
The skip is sort of gone, but sort of still there, and a lifter is ticking. It’s the exhaust for the intake that had the bent pushrod.
I get a call……… “the lifter won’t pump up”.

I tell him…….”that lifter has a hole in the bottom of it”.

He didn’t think I was right…….. but then he sent me this:

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Supposedly the cam still looked fine, and the other 15 lifters were fine.
It was near the end of the season and it wasn’t going to be properly repaired before the season was over.
So……..One new lifter was installed(partially just to make the vehicle mobile again)……… and it’s still running fine 2 years later.
 
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SBC, Hylift Johnson lifter, Melling cam, started clattering at about 15mins on the dyno.

Again, the other 15 looked fine.

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Occasionally you get lucky.
Normally if the lifter isn’t rotating, it’s basically guaranteed the cam will fail.
But, I have seen lifters/lobes survive without rotation in two different engines.
Not engines I put together, but engines that were here for some upgrades and it was discovered during disassembly.

This came out of a 360…….. and there were a few like this.
Doesn’t look like it was ever properly turning.
The cam had less than 1/2 a thou of lobe taper.

With the new SFT that replaced the HFT, all the lifters were showing good rotation prior to final assembly.

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Do you have a lifter that was properly rotating marks?

Learning here at this point.
 
So why did that fail?
Click to expand...

Figure that out……..and a viable, affordable solution…….. you could get rich.

My feeling is that the lifters aren’t as consistently good as they once were.

Powell Machine has several YouTube videos exploring the subject.
 
clementine said:
Do you have a lifter that was properly rotating marks?

Learning here at this point.
Click to expand...
When they are functioning as designed, the lifter doesn’t really show any “pattern”, it’s just a smooth uniform finish.

The lifters not rotating is only one way they can fail.
But the lifters in the pics in posts 1,8,17 looked like they were still rotating, yet they still failed.
 
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