Wanted to share a valuable lesson learned of what could've been a catastrophic failure that I caught early. Some background story first. 15k miles ago I decided to do some NA power upgrades and included a medium lift "Stage II" Trickflow Cam, commonly referred to also as the Stage II Sloppy Cam. I kept the stock 853 heads, but a plethora of additional upgrades went in, such as PAC dual valve springs, new LS7 lifters and new lifter trays, high pressure oil pump, 7.400 pushrods etc... Since the new LS7 lifters, I had an occasional "lifter tick". It always sounded like only 1 lifter ticking. The "tick" would come and go typically in low RPMs and idle, but I dismissed it thinking that being random and occasional it wouldn't be big problem. I never experienced any performance issues either, but nevertheless the tick has remained. I tried numerous things to aid such as 10W-30 oil, Rislone Oil treatment (for dirty stuck lifters) and although it improved, it never went away.

15k miles later I pulled the trigger on upgrading to CNC ported heads along with Johnson 2110R lifters. I inspected the cam lobes from up top with the heads removed, as well as the lifters rollers and I didn't find any worrisome amount of wear in any of them, but upon a closer look at the heads, I found one of the valve stems looking like this:



It was only this one valve that showed this wear. With the new heads and Johnson lifters, that old lifter tick is now gone. I've lost my trust in LS7 lifters. My experience was that 1 out of the 16 lifters was faulty and was the cause of the lifter tick and extreme wear on the valve stem. Lesson learned: DON'T IGNORE YOUR LIFTER TICK!!

 

I'm researching heads / cam for this winter and ran across this post. Thanks!

 

What make LS7 lifter did you use?

 

turabo87, who CNC ported your heads?

Those lifter are costly.....
https://www.johnsonlifters.com/Produ...ers/2110R.aspx

 

Sorry I meant what make lifters had the issue?

 

Supposedly they were ACDelco, from a highly rated eBay account.

 

The first time I put the cam, I kept the stock 853 heads as is, just upgraded springs, rockers, LS7 lifters, pushrods...
The second wave of upgrades were the Texas Speed PRC CNC ported heads (PRC 227 milled down to 11.0-11.5 compression) and I put the Johnson Lifters with it. Yea, everything was expensive, but I got a tremendous package deal since I bought everything from a CF member that had changed his mind last minute on his build goals, so he sold all of this to me new at a discounted price. The Johnson lifters are awesome.

 

Cost and quality go hand in hand.... if you open your engine for surgery... get good parts.... Johnson lifters are far superior than any production lifter... the internal tolerances are way better.... link bares are just as important... the plastic trays eventually wear and allow the lifters to twist... that's how cam lobes get wiped out...I have Johnson lifters and no more sewing machine sound...

 

Speaking of lifters and lifter ticks.........
I originally posted this in the C6/LS7 forum, but it's worth repeating here. I have a built LS7, with LS7 lifters, in my C5, hence posting in the aforementioned forum. It applies here too. I REALLY got lucky. A few years ago, I had an LS7 professionally built. I installed it myself. Ran great. But at around the 2,000 mile mark I foolishly overreved the engine. Bent all 16 3/8" pushrods. Anyway, I bought new pushrods, but as soon as I installed them, I knew something else was wrong. It now had the dreaded lifter click. As we went thru a fast food drive thru, my wife even asked me "What's that noise"? I knew then it wasn't just my imagination. Sure enough, I pulled the passenger side head, and found a broken lifter and a wiped out cam lobe. But that's NOT my point. I replaced my lifter, which was so bad it wouldn't come up thru the lifter bore. I had to remove the cam anyway, so I made up a "lifter catcher" out of PVC pipe. I made it out of a PCV pipe that was cut down the middle, slipped it thru the cam bores, and pushed the lifter down into it. Put In a new cam and 1 lifter, and was good to go.....NOT!!!!! After all that work, I now had a different sounding lifter tick. Sometimes at certain RPM, you could hear it. I'm wondering what now? Well, after 20,000 miles I pulled the heads on both sides. The new lifter that was installed had weird flaking on the roller wheel. I bought another new lifter, and looked closely at the lifter tray that had once contained the broken lifter. THERE IT WAS!!!! I didn't replace the lifter tray when the lifter broke because, as I said the motor only had 2,000 miles on it. Well, usually you'd be correct that the trays would be fine with just 2,000 miles on them. But NOT when a lifter is broken!!! I know better, too. Sure enough, because that tray was damaged when I overreved the engine and broke the lifter, it let the new lifter I installed twist back and forth, I'm thinking about 10°-15°!!! It was only a matter of time before the lifter twisted enough to wipe out another cam at best, or maybe crack or break the cast aluminum lifter bore that is part of the block. So, if you EVER have your heads off, even with only a few thousand miles on the trays, for $35 BUY ALL NEW TRAYS!!!!!

 

but well worth it

 

I forgot to mention new LS2 trays too. Absolutely true on grinder11's comments. I also don't trust any lifter tray. I went with AC Delco original LS2 trays both times.