I just picked up a new daily driver/project vehicle. It's actually a 79 Z28, not a C3...but it has the same 350 4v engine that it's Corvette siblings used back then, so many of you will be familiar with it!

I want to put a new cam and lifters in this car when I swap intakes and drop in a set of headers, but I'm concerned about the quality of any hydraulic lifters made after about 1990! There's been a rash of failures blamed equally on a lack of additives in most modern oils, and the fact that many lifters (along with other poor fitting, lousy quality auto parts these days) were made in China and Taiwan for years now.

The lifters in the car are quiet and the cam seems okay...but it's a stock smog motor cam. I get out of the 74 Vette and into this car and it just lacks something! I want it to have decent punch, so I'm willing to spend the coin to wake the motor up some, but I need to know who's lifters (brand) I can trust?

Everyone says to use the GM Performance hydraulic lifters from the dealer. They're expensive, but supposedly Made In USA. Companies like Comp Cams say their lifters are fine and always have been when used with the proper grade oil and/or additives.

The cam I'm looking at is actually a Lunati VooDoo series hydraulic, but I don't know how good their lifters are.

Should I spring for the GM lifters for the Lunati cam, or have you used Lunati lifters with no problems?

What lifters DO you run?

 

I like Rhoads lifters.

http://www.rhoadslifters.com/

 

Whatever you decide be sure to use Rotella-T diesel oil & throw in some GM EOS in for the break-in.

 

might want to look into a spring/lifter/cam combo, those 20+ YO springs are probably very tired

check this out, should work well with stock heads

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...0&autoview=sku

 

There are only maybe 2 manufacturers of lifters. They are boxed up for the various cam companies. The hard faced GM lifters are better but I am not sure if you can buy them anymore. Johnson made the best ones years ago but these days I am not that picky about lifters. The rest is just hype.

As someone else said -run some diesel rated oil and some GM EOS with moly lube on the lifter bottoms/lobes.

-Mark.

 

i would buy the lifters from the same company i bought the cam from and get new pushrods and rockerarms at the same time

 

That's likely the best bet. The Lunati cam comes with lifters as a kit, but I'd buy other lifters if there was even a question about their quality.

I already have a set of new Crane pushrods and a set of Comp Cams "Magnum" roller tip rocker arms that I never used on the last small block car I messed with, and I was thinking that I'd buy a set of rebuilt heads with new springs and maybe smaller chambers to bump the compression up a hair. Not looking for a wild street racer, just something with a little more power than a stocker. About on par with an early 70s small block car.

 

and get screw in rocker arm studs