It is one of the biggest and frankly frightening parts of budget engine building these days. The seemingly awful failure rate of hydraulic lifters after cam swaps or in fresh builds. It has victimized guys from coast to coast, backyard builders to the biggest names in the industry. So what’s the deal? No one knows what they are doing anymore? Junk parts from countries hell bent on flooding the market with the lowest grade stuff possible? Is the simple answer China? Uncle Tony and his audience say that’s not the answer. They’ve done some leg work and frankly the results are nuts.
Your new lifters likely aren’t new at all.
For a long time, like a LONG time, cam companies have been reconditioning hydraulic flat tappet lifters included with their cams. There’s this Uncle Tony video and he references a second video by a guy named Tom Mews. You need to watch both of them. First Tony’s and then Tom’s. Why? Tom does the deep dive into this subject and it’s fascinating.
This is a plot twist we never saw coming.
Thats the the most believable answer I have heard yet but where are the regrinders getting all these used lifters and cams from? Did not see link to the second video, maybe that had more answers. Also I believe it is illegal to present used or reconditioned stuff as new so that could explain why this has taken so long to come out. I like Rhodes lifters and wonder if that is a good answer to all this.
There are a LOT of reasons a mopar may not go back together with perfect preload
head gasket thickness changes
heads surfaced
deck surfaced
cam base circle change
valve job that sinks valve
Valve tip clipped during valve job
etc etc etc
Small blocks have several length pushrods that vary around .080 between them all
Usually any Mopar rebuild will have much increased lifter preload because of all the above factors and require shorter push rods or shims under the shafts or both
Also never ever mentioned is the fact that LIFTER BORES are subject to lots of wear–any lifter of even the best quality can fail and wipe a lobe if lifter bore is worn–and in many of these now 50 year old blocks that is a big concern and often Never checked
Rookies also yank the old ( and often mushroomed) lifters out the top thus scratching and grooving the lifter bores Old lifters should Always be driven out from the top so you don’t pull the expanded surface back through the bore
So….I guess there could be reman lifters out there–If it is cheap I would bet it will be done but there are many other factors
And….many of the Retro hyd roller lifters have no cores and have to be new–and they all seem to have a bad rep of plungers sticking causing a big mess
has happened to me often–they always claim dirty build or some crap and refuse any help
had 2 SBC rebuilds recently (a couple years ago), both had lifter/cam issues(mild HP-375/400), my current SBC (it’s pretty sporty) has solid roller lifters, been keeping really clean oil in in (PennGrade 20/50) and 4000mi later (including more than a few 8000rpm+ blasts) it’s just fine. Think I’m solid roller guy for performance from now on. My SBC has no factory parts inside it, that might have something to do with it’s reliability too.
i am beginning to like this U T G guy some balls telling us not al things are what they seem the slap on obd2 vs ob1 made me smile thinking on who’s going to repair some of this crap on todays cars,,,,,,, todays real cost of what goes in a car is disturbing ,,,,,, steel is no longer the the biggest expense but the electronics,,,,
Blame it on the mystery {THEM}
If there is a lifter rebuilder in your area people know .
In my town we make bullets , steel car wheels , rebar , tool boxes
just to name a few .
When have you ever had a lifter core charge ?
And…the Retro hyd roller lifters have no cores they are all new–and no matter who makes them Johnson, Callies, etc they have all had issues with sticking plungers wrecking new builds–that has to be a tolerance issue I would think.
The First Crane retro hyd rollers made were wonderful! Used a lot of them before they went away or were changed and they were great! Seemed like soon as they started though they must have subbed them out and then it was all down hill from there. I have had stuck plungers on every brand out there