Hey all. Getting my rebuilt 455 back together with reground cam and NOS American lifters. A couple of the lifters were a little tight in their bores. A little dressing of the top edges of those bores with a curved needle file seemed to take care of that in that the lifters in question can now slide up and down ok.
But I read somewhere that the lifters need to be able to fall down on their own. Some of mine do, but some lifters need a little coaxing (this is with a bit of motor oil on them.

After reading all the horror stories of ruined cams on start up, im worried. Is what I did enough, or do they for sure all need to be falling on their own? I just dont have a good feel for how loose they need to be.

I also read that I could rotate the crank and watch for lifter rotation. I'm kinda hesitant to do that because I don't want to wipe thru all the assembly goo that I've wiped on the camshaft lobes and lifter faces by spinning the crank a number of times.

Thoughts?
Thanks in advance.

 

Polish the lifter bore with some scotchbrite, throughly clean the bore, see if that improves the fit.