Hi everyone,

I had my engine in my 442 rebuild with full roller components. Comp cam, lifters, and prw rockers. I had put 800 miles on the car when I collapsed a lifter. The engine builder said the manufacture was out of stock on these lifters but was able to get one and replace it for me to get me going. Got the car back and a week later it collapsed another lifter. I dropped my car back off to them and at this time the engine guy said they are 1100 units back ordered. This was around two months ago. Still no lifters.

So my question is, is anyone else having this problem? What other roller lifters are you guys using besides Comp?

The engine guy brought up the option of ditching the roller setup and going with a flat tappet. I would like to stay roller, but need a reliable lifter. Are there a lot more advantages with staying with roller then going to flat tappet?

Any advice you guy have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

 

When I put mine roller setup in the 403 a few years back I bought some from Doug Herbert. I have had many passes up to 6k RPM without an issue. Not sure who makes them for him but they have worked for me.

 

Erson

 

Any truth to one company making them for everyone? I did check the summit racing websight and they when out of stock from comp and Crain.

 

I can get you a set of Morels/Erson tomorrow. However if you keep collapsing lifters you may want to double check the open spring height vs coil bind.

 

I'm showing my ignorance here, but what exactly fails to make a lifter collapse? And can some internal part be replaced to repair it?

 

Good news! The lifters just showed up today out of the blue! My engine builder talked to them yesterday and they had no idea when they would have replacements. So I guess I'll be back in business soon. Hopefully the manufacture corrected the problem with them collapsing.

Thank you Mark, hopefully I won't need those in the future but I'll keep those in mind. I'll also ask the engine builder about the open spring hight vs the coil bind.

Fun71 I don't know either. Maybe the spring inside breaks on compresses. I don't know.

 

Nothing new to have Comp lifters stick in the collapsed position.
No, one manufacturer does not make them all. Lots of off shore product being sold. The best bet at this time is the Morels which are sold under many different brand names such as Bullet, Erson, etc.

 

I wish I couldn't, but I can relate all too well to this problem. I had a COMP lifter collapse a year ago with only a couple hundred miles on the rebuild, and another just this week with only about 1300 miles on the engine.

The first failure was on the #1 cylinder, and this time it is on the #4 or #6 (Haven't had time to go in and check yet). I am still waiting for a call back from the COMP warranty department (day 3 waiting). Although I am very reluctant to let this dog bite me for a THIRD time.

When I replaced the first failed lifter, I discovered that the oil metering plate/disc between the lifter piston and push rod cup had fractured into 4 pieces. This prevented the lifter from building up the necessary oil pressure, hence the collapse. Luckily the disc broke into large enough pieces that nothing escaped the actual lifter and started floating around my engine, hopefully that story is the same this time around. It seems COMP chose the wrong material for this disc, or bad metallurgy is to blame.

My valve geometry is correct, and I set the lifter preload to spec. This also happened on a day that I was just cruising around, not flogging on the engine, which I really don't do anyway. (never been to the strip with the car).

At $500 a set, plus another $60 for the first pair I replaced, it will be hard to just set these on a shelf and let them rot away, but I just can't justify gambling with another set from COMP. Plus, even if they offer me a free replacement set from warranty, that still does not cover my down time, labor, and replacement gaskets, only to risk yet another failure down the road!

Can someone recommend a more reliable set of Hydraulic Lifters from another manufacturer? I have seen the (Edit: Crane) lifters, but they are $700 on Summit, and have a long lead time for availability. I know you get what you pay for, and am willing to pay more for a reliable set, but are there other options?

Also, are the manufacturers consistent with lifter height, or will changing manufacturers possibly mean different length push rods for proper geometry?

Thank you,

Chris

 

get a set of Erson from Mark - Cutlassefi

 

If, and I hope to god this doesn't happen, I have another lifter collapse I'm going with the Erson ones. I'll also probably do it myself as my engine builder, well quiet frankly, SUCKS! They rebuilt my engine, for the second time, and when I got it back it was leaking oil out of the back of the motor. It took them 2 months to look at my motor again, and when they did they said an oil plug "fell out" of the back of the motor. Fell out or did they forget to put it in? So yeah, I think I'll have to cut my loses and move on. I hope I'm done with the problems and can enjoy driving the car this summer.