Yes I agree Ted and Gary, this is my own motor and I know the lifters didn't see more than 5 minutes of run time before the rod let go, it couldn't have because all else was brand spanking new in the motor from wrist pins and bushings, bearings etc,,, they must have just forgot to tighten a rod cap.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

awesome, thank you-

Dan, like has been stated above I think you will be wasting time and energy with those lifters that you have. I am going to send you a cam and lifters that I just removed from a very low mileage eng, the crosshatching is still visable in the cyls. The lifters are marked in the order that they were removed so you can install them on the proper lobe. The cam looks good with no noticeable lobe wear and it has the H/D truck double roller chain. I would not be afraid to use this cam and lifters in a stock rebuild if it is reassemblied in the proper order. If you decided not to use it and go with a new cam, by all means go with new lifters recommended by the cam grinder not the cheap off shore stuff on E bay.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

Always remember when you resurface a lifter you are cutting some of the hardness away and taking a step closer to failure. As much work as it is changing cams and lifters in a y-block there's no way in ???? would I gamble used too new. Some cases where that can work is where there is not alot of spring pressure 70 lbs or so closed and lifters still have a decent crown for rotation.

-Gary Burnette-

yeah, we have a lathe, good idea! how much crown should they have?

For a customers engine, the risk is simply too high to take a chance with using used lifters on a new camshaft.  For myself I could potentially gamble a bit on my own engine with a used lifter but on a customers engine where there’s the remotest chance of failure, I’ll stick with the rule of always putting new lifters on a new camshaft.  If an engine has run at least twenty minutes, then the lifters and lobes have technically been mated to each other at which point even moving the lifters to other lobes would not even be considered.  With this reasoning, the lifters are not suitable for another camshaft without a given amount of additional risk being attached to them.  It's simply boils down to how much risk you are willing to accept.

But to reinforce how critical camshaft and lifter mating is, I recently dealt with someone who had insisted on using their old camshaft and even with new lifters, this engine experienced a lobe failure within the first hour of running.  In this case, the camshaft had been moved from one block to another and was glad I was not the one who had to warranty and subsequently fix the engine.  All it takes is for the lifter bores to be located just slightly different from one block to another to make swapping used cams and/or lifters from engine to engine very risky business.  Not every case in doing this is a failure which is why people are still doing it.  Although new lifters are not a guarantee against a lifter and/or lobe failure, it does reduce the risk providing the lifters are of a known quality to begin with.  Offshore lifters are another topic altogether.

Unless you can put the proper radius for the crown on the bottom of the lifter, then a simple resurfacing of the lifter face will not be adequate.  Don’t recall the exact spec for the crown for a Y lifter but seems like it’s in the 50” radius range.  Excuse the long post as I got carried away on this one.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Ted,

How about lifters that appear to be new from a fresh rebuild that went wrong on a connecting rod, and using those lifters with a new cam shaft???

The reason I am asking is that a motor I picked up and tore apart had all new parts in it but one connecting rod must not have gotten torqued and the nuts where at the end of the bolts and the cap was history. Would those lifters be usable with a new cam?

I have a grinding attachment to go on my lathe and have the ability to reface them also but was just wondering if there were any issues with using slightly used ones with a new cam. I know many people who have changed cams without ever bothering with lifters so I can't see why there should be an issue.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Being a school shop you may have access to a lathe. I put my lifters in a lathe chuck and a dial indicator on the tool post and run it back and forth to check the crown of the lifters

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

Well brought our engine to the machine shop yesterday to get it checked out. Machinist reports it has .017 taper. I plan to build it to 292 specs so he feels we can work with this block. Getting exciting - the actual work is beginning 

The shaft diameter of the lifter sounds okay but wear in this particular area is typically not a problem whereas wear on the lifter face itself is.  Putting a straight edge on the lifter face and insuring that it is higher in the middle than the outside edges is a rudimentary method for checking for lifter wear.  If the lifter is flat or is actually lower in the middle than the edges, then lifter wear is evident and at this point should be replaced.

 

As a general rule when using used lifters, always keep the lifters associated with the same lobes of the camshaft when reusing them.  It’s risky and not recommended in using used lifters on other camshafts or switching them around in an engine on lobes they were not originally broke in on.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)