I got a set of lifters from CompCams a month ago, sittin in the box still. Cleaned up a small pail and am fixin to put the lifters in it and submerge them in oil and pump them up, but......

do lifters come pre-pumped ? Or do I still need to pump them up like I'm fixin to do ?

I guess I'll submerge them anyhow just to be on the safe side, but was just wondering whether suppliers pre-fill them.

 

They are not prefilled.

 

Thanks 007. its a gen II question but the folks on this forum are really great.

Its a 67 K-20 fleetside w/ a 327 4x4, SM-420. Need it to haul a 20 ft trailer with a '56 Ferguson F-40 tractor on it. Wasn't strong enough so I got some vortec heads, did all the machine work and ready to go, selected comp's XE-250-H cam b/c of low overlap (high manif. vacuum) so I'm hoping for decent mileage. Comp's got dyno sheet showing 350-400 ft lbs of torque pretty flat over 2000-4500 rpm. axle ratios front & rear are 4:55's.

Pulled the head off left bank and one exhaust valve was sunk about .250" into the head, valve ain't round, got cracks on it. So it was good that I got in there when I did. Old intake valves on them heads were only 1.78, so the extra 1.94's I had laying around from my C4 project came in handy. Used beehive springs from LS1, at installed height of 1.80" they give about the same force as stock vortec springs installed at 1.70" and since I couldn't find spring shims for a couple seats that needed cut a bit extra, all the springs should be in operating range, I would have had to shim a couple , about 060 each or so. Only issue in my mind is pushrod lenght for maintaining textbook geometry, I'm hoping in one hand that 060 isn't going to be significant over the rpm range I'm operating at.

Truck's pretty good but some yoyo gunked up the front seal obscenely with sillycone sealant.

Dammit, I wish I could find that good old Moly-based cam break in lube that had the real good rheological properties like back in the day, it would cling to the cam, all the stuff I came across drips off so I'm concerned if I put this back together today and wait till Tuesday to fire it up, will all my cam break-in lube be dripped off and I wipe a lobe or two ? I'm thinking maybe a blend of some 3% moly chassis grease with a little ZDP.

 

Chris, use a pint of break in additive. Comp cams, Lucas and others make this. I used the Lucas and Joe Gibbs break in oil earlier this year when I had my motor freshened up. It's got all sorts of zinc and other additives for extra lubrication for initlal startup and break in. Willie

 

I'll do it Willie, thanks. I still have some TRW cam break in lube from '89, when I first fire it up I'll keep rpms down way low for a minute.

Those vortec iron heads are going to wake that ole truck up, supposed to be a little better than what's on my '93 LT1 vette.

BTW, nothing's broken on my vett for the first time in 6 months, had to change halfshaft u-joints, tires, front steering rack, A/C. Its a pleasure to have A/C here in Tex in June. I personally like the C4 b/c I think its probably the last production car that drives like an old school "sports car", as far as feel. Sure, a C5 Z06 would be nice but I love my '93, looks more like a Man's car than the curvy things that came after. Have a good afternoon, I'm headin back out to the heat...

 

Red comp stuff seems to come off by the time its installed
Put it on a dist gear. By the time I had turned it over one revolution by hand it was gone. Miss the old stuff..it would stick to anything.

You can soak the lifters in oil then drop them in. They wont pump up til you have oil pressure

 

I've heard it's the zink that you're really after, so make sure it has that. LXE (liquid wax ester) is a popular ingrediant in some of them too.

 

I put 3% moly chassis lube on all the lobes, its got the consistency of vaseline so its stickin well. Bottom of lifters I put TRW cam assembly lube on. Moly disulfide is the ticket. Surely the "new world order" will ban it under some communistic desire to regulate everything. Hell, the search engines these days only turn up mostly advertisements. Thanks google, you SOB's.

 

It worked out well, I'd set the timing just right and my helper revved the motor at startup sufficiently to break in the cam while I observed. No leaks anywhere and the vortec heads really added a lot of pep to that old chevy, although I had to rebuilt the Q-jet. The person previous had bent one of the metering rods and I fixed that so its running real nice. I set half the lifters in #1 TDC posit & the other half at #6 and pre-loaded them with a quarter turn - perfectuamundo - no clickity clackety at all. Q-jet's from a 454 truck so I'm not worried about lean burning of the new valves but maybe its running a bit rich. I'm pretty pleased but will probably still tweak jet size / rod diameters.