New engine. Confirm my suspicion of bad lifter.
05-16-2015, 03:23 PM
#1
Pro
Thread Starter
New engine. Confirm my suspicion of bad lifter.
Bought a stroker short block 383. Finished assembling it with Edelbrock rpm heads and a Comp 282 hydraulic roller cam kit that came with cam, lifters, springs, retainers, and pushrods.
During break in the valvetrain seemed loud so I relashed the valves again afterwards. After starting it up again it was still loud from the drivers side. It sounded like a loose rocker clacking. So I relashed again. No change.
So I installed a valve cover with the top cut off to watch the rockers. I narrowed it down to the #5 exhaust valve that was making the noise. I can't lash the noise out of it.
I did notice that after I set the lash on that valve that I can still push down on the rocker by hand and the pushrod pushes the plunger down in the lifter as if its not pumped up. I can't do this with any other valve.
Does this indicate a bad lifter?
During break in the valvetrain seemed loud so I relashed the valves again afterwards. After starting it up again it was still loud from the drivers side. It sounded like a loose rocker clacking. So I relashed again. No change.
So I installed a valve cover with the top cut off to watch the rockers. I narrowed it down to the #5 exhaust valve that was making the noise. I can't lash the noise out of it.
I did notice that after I set the lash on that valve that I can still push down on the rocker by hand and the pushrod pushes the plunger down in the lifter as if its not pumped up. I can't do this with any other valve.
Does this indicate a bad lifter?
05-16-2015, 07:05 PM
#2
Le Mans Master
From another forum. Worth reading.
I use the cheapest of the cheap on the market, no name brand anything and I still swap in use cams and lifters into projects to save a dime. I think some of the key points for folks breaking in new cam are over looked.
New hyd lifters that I purchase always seem to have a sticky oil film on them and if you push the plunger down it stays stuck down, some won't even push down. I take about an hour or so to clean new lifter ( really any lifter even used) to free up the plunger just using an old push rod with a rag wrapped around it for my palm. once I get a lifter all clean using carb cleaner and it's plunger is free I move on to the next.
I can see folks putting in new lifters, lashing and relash and upon start up engine doesn't run right because the plungers do not work properly, hanging valves open because of over lash- they lashed once and then came back and lashed again and plunger never returned to proper height, clacking sounds because plunger won't pump up and so forth, all because the lifters wasn't clean and free to operate correctly
Next, no amount of oil or lube or additive will protect a lifter that does not rotate, I check every lifter to make sure it rotates even before the intake goes on, I do part of the check while lashing valves, mark the top of the lifter with a marker and as I turn the motor to lash another valve I see if that lifter is rotating.
Once all the lash has been complete I will hand crank the motor several revolutions to make sure all lifters rotate.
I just built a 383 stroker and one of the lifters refused to rotate during the whole process, that lifter would have died during break in no doubt about that. I was able to catch that before hand because of this process.
I re clean the lifter bore and cleaned the lifter again and re installed, it turn maybe a 1/16 of a turn and it stopped ( i think it turned a little only because the lube was being squished out of the bottom on the lifter/ cam that helped it rotate), I then swapped it with lifter that was the fastest spinning lifter of the bunch, even then it spun maybe 1/4 of a turn and it stopped. So then I picked up another slow turning lifter from another hole and swapped again, finally I got a combination that all lifter was turning, some faster some slower but all was turning.
This is the process I use on new cam, used cams and new lifters, or just any old used cam and a bucket of used lifter from where ever.
Each and every engine has known fact the lifters turn before the intake gets bolted on.
Whats my death rate of cams since doing this process, zero, of course I don't build hundreds of engines a year, 2, three, four engines a year of different degrees from cheap stocker to help out a poor guy or a mild blown 383 for a show car.
All I'm trying to get across, you just can't throw in a cam and lifters and add all this additive stuff and think all will be ok. I do things most won't even think of doing and why aren't my cams dying in the first 30 minutes or years down the road, got to be something to it.
my blown bbc still has a used 40 dollar cam in it from a swap meet with used lifters that came out of a bucket and still has not gone flat, it's at least 5 years now.
Just my thought on flat tappet cam failures
I use the cheapest of the cheap on the market, no name brand anything and I still swap in use cams and lifters into projects to save a dime. I think some of the key points for folks breaking in new cam are over looked.
New hyd lifters that I purchase always seem to have a sticky oil film on them and if you push the plunger down it stays stuck down, some won't even push down. I take about an hour or so to clean new lifter ( really any lifter even used) to free up the plunger just using an old push rod with a rag wrapped around it for my palm. once I get a lifter all clean using carb cleaner and it's plunger is free I move on to the next.
I can see folks putting in new lifters, lashing and relash and upon start up engine doesn't run right because the plungers do not work properly, hanging valves open because of over lash- they lashed once and then came back and lashed again and plunger never returned to proper height, clacking sounds because plunger won't pump up and so forth, all because the lifters wasn't clean and free to operate correctly
Next, no amount of oil or lube or additive will protect a lifter that does not rotate, I check every lifter to make sure it rotates even before the intake goes on, I do part of the check while lashing valves, mark the top of the lifter with a marker and as I turn the motor to lash another valve I see if that lifter is rotating.
Once all the lash has been complete I will hand crank the motor several revolutions to make sure all lifters rotate.
I just built a 383 stroker and one of the lifters refused to rotate during the whole process, that lifter would have died during break in no doubt about that. I was able to catch that before hand because of this process.
I re clean the lifter bore and cleaned the lifter again and re installed, it turn maybe a 1/16 of a turn and it stopped ( i think it turned a little only because the lube was being squished out of the bottom on the lifter/ cam that helped it rotate), I then swapped it with lifter that was the fastest spinning lifter of the bunch, even then it spun maybe 1/4 of a turn and it stopped. So then I picked up another slow turning lifter from another hole and swapped again, finally I got a combination that all lifter was turning, some faster some slower but all was turning.
This is the process I use on new cam, used cams and new lifters, or just any old used cam and a bucket of used lifter from where ever.
Each and every engine has known fact the lifters turn before the intake gets bolted on.
Whats my death rate of cams since doing this process, zero, of course I don't build hundreds of engines a year, 2, three, four engines a year of different degrees from cheap stocker to help out a poor guy or a mild blown 383 for a show car.
All I'm trying to get across, you just can't throw in a cam and lifters and add all this additive stuff and think all will be ok. I do things most won't even think of doing and why aren't my cams dying in the first 30 minutes or years down the road, got to be something to it.
my blown bbc still has a used 40 dollar cam in it from a swap meet with used lifters that came out of a bucket and still has not gone flat, it's at least 5 years now.
Just my thought on flat tappet cam failures
05-16-2015, 07:11 PM
#3
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I also believe it "could" be a hung up lifter... have been involved with a lot of builds like that write up you posted ddawson,
I have sene "junk" run really sweet et's on the cheap....
Each builder has their own "tricks"
I have sene "junk" run really sweet et's on the cheap....
Each builder has their own "tricks"