A friend of mine has a Chevy 468 big block in his GTO. He recently flattened a lobe on a brand new custom solid roller cam. His roller lifter failed. He contacted the company that made his cam (sorry, I don't know who that was), and they told him that despite the fact that roller lifters can be used with different cams, with solid roller cams, they should be changed every year or so, depending on how much you drive.

He did have these lifters for 4 years, and about 5000 miles on them, but in 24 years of engine building, this is the first he's ever heard this advice. Makes me wonder if the cam companies are just not willing to pony up and admit an occaisional lapse in quality. Or they just want you to spend a lot on their stuff. Because a set of roller lifters is easily a couple hundred bucks.

Those of you with good experience...what's your take on that?
:eek: :confused:

 

From my experience that's about right.

Sometimes you luck out, but not usually.

I bought a set out of a dragster once (who knows how many passes), ran them for two years on a .725 lift cam on the street, then stuck them on a street roller for 3 more years. Finally one died and when I checked them several others were right behind it.

With this 540, I got about 9000 miles on a new set of Comp ones before one of them died. Luckily I caught it before it killed cam. You have to really pay attention to ANY abnormal valve lash changes. If the same one moves twice, something is dying.

When I spoke to Comp cams, they told me the same thing. They said if you get 5000 miles on a set you're doing pretty good. They said 9000 was fantastic.

My cam is from Engle and they also recommend annual replacement or rebuilds.

Don't fall for the Endurex lifters. Yes they have more needles in the rollers, but to do that, they made the shaft smaller. This weekens it and if you have any real spring pressure it fails too. They do have a nice oiling groove which most all of them are adding thse days in one form or another. Plus they are NOT rebuildable.

I had mine rebuilt by Comp for around $150-$160 it seems. Often if you contact Crane, they offer a trade in service and give you a discount for first time purchasers.

The roller cams we're talking about are pretty serious pieces. They have very fast lobe lift rates and require lots of spring pressure, especially in big blocks. They will live a lONG time IF you keep RPM up. What kills them is the low speed riding around and cruising. There is not enough splash from the rotating assy. to keep them oiled well. I think GKULL got something like 30K out of his stout small block cam before one died, but he does lots of high speed running that helps.

Does he use restrictors in the block? Most of the cam co's don't like them, but often they are necessary to keep oil under control. He may need to open them up some to provide more lube. Many big blocks have issues with lifter bores out of whack, but if he ran this long, it's probably not too bad. Make sure you use good oil and look for LOTS of Zinc in it to help wear. If using dino oil look for stuff like Valvoline race oil. Or even the diesel oils like Rotella and Delo. Newer regular oils are geared toward emissions..not hot rod cam life.

Either way,he realistically is about on par with everyone else running serious solid rollers on the street. It's just a cost of doing business. Your best bet is to replace/rebuild them every year to be on the safe side. Luckily he just got cam..often the lifter bore/block gets mangled too and thats expen$$$ive!

Past this you can look into the ceramic Shubeck type lifters. Depending on type I think they are in the $650-$900+ range plus block mods. But they don't ever wear out!

Don't feel bad..some of the killer Pro-Mod and Pro Stock type roller lifters are in the $3500+ range per set!


JIM




[Modified by 427Hotrod, 11:12 AM 10/23/2003]

 

Is this just on solid rollers I have 7000 miles on my hyd roller without any problems.

 

Yes...generally just solids. It's not really anything to do with the solid design. It's just that most solid rollers are much more aggressive than hydraulics and require much higher spring pressures. Most hyd rollers don't stress stuff very much.

Solid street rollers are much milder and can last a long time too. The ramps are similar to the hyd type. But of course you get the avantage of no lifter pump on on the solids and can get more RPM out of them even on a street roller..

JIM

 

solid roller should be changed every 150 hours. you can extend this if you use a rev kit to keep the roller in contact with the lobe at all time and never let the lash get loose.hyd roller lifters do this for you. the roller bouncing and skipping on the lobe causes the problem. :chevy