Question about cam wear and signs of wiped lobe

I have a freshly rebuilt 383 that I recently fired up. The motor has a mild hydraulic cam from Howards Cam and Crower camsaver lifters. I followed the cam manufacturers cam break in procedure with break in oil and everything seemed to go fine. After the cam break in I drove the car about 2-3 miles then parked it for the day. The next day I fired it up and let it warm up then was going to take it on a ride and it felt like it was missing on 3 or more cylinders and was popping out of the exhuast pretty bad while idling. I have never had a cam wipe but these sounded like the symptoms I had heard so I was alittle sick. I pulled the intake and pulled out the lifters one by one and they all look great. I have not had time rotate the motor and inspect the cam but if there was an issue wouldn't it show up on the lifter faces? I hope it was another problem and I just jumped to conclusions here!

If it was running fine when you shut it off and was missing the next day when you started it the cam is not your problem. Check your timing,

You would definitely see something on the lifter faces , it doesn't take long once you get metal to metal contact.

If the intake is still off put the valvetrain back together, oil on the lobes, spin the engine over by hand and watch the lifters for rotation.

That's what I was thinking. I was short on time when I got the intake off and I figured it would be easy and quick to check the lifters for abnormal wear. I have seen pics of lifters that were concave from flat cams but I didn't see anything like that. I was thinking if it was truly a wiped cam and was to the point it was making the motor miss there would be some pretty good carnage. I am going to take some time and inspect that cam tonight. Thanks

If a lifter is concave then you would see a worn cam lobe that the lifter was on.

You have another issue. I've been in your shoes, very nervous when breaking in a flat tappet cam.

How did you set lifter preload ?

How old is the gas? I just had an issue this spring and it turned out to be bad gas.

Look closely at each lobe, all the way around them, if the lobes where parkerised(black coated, not a machined finished lobes like Mopar cams sells)they should be broke in(shiny) on part of the lobe that the lifter spins on, not all the way across the lobe. I've seen motors that had worn out the lobes, the tops of those lobes where pitted and not pointed on the top Let us know what you find You could use a dial inicator to mesure the lift on each lobe also, if you have those tools Good luck, I'll hope that the cam and lifters are okay Pull all the spark plugs and see if any of them are fouled out, black and oily

That's a great idea on the dial indicator. I will do that just for the piece of mind. Thanks!

That's a possibility. Its not crazy old but I have heard that gas starts breaking down very quickly specially modern gas. I think that could be playing a part and I think the plugs may be beginning to get fouled also. The EFI was a little rich when it first fired. I am just happy its not the cam! I was expecting the worse so any other problem is great!

Check your ignition system, starting with your coil. I had the same issue twice. First when I just got my car. Cool was breaking down and it started missing, backfiring, etc. new coil and it was ok again. 8 months later it started doing it again, but was more gradual during a day of cruising. I thought a lobe was wiping. Got so bad the car stalled and wouldn't restart. Backfiring out the exhaust like a gun going off.

Figured my cam was shot. Towed it home. In the time it took to get home, everything cooled off and it started up like nothing was wrong. Put another new coil on it and never had another problem

Thanks for the advice. The ignition system is a Performance Distributors Tri power and its all new but that doesn't always mean a lot when dealing with electronics so I will keep it in mind and check it.

Make sure each lifter turns freely in its bore, one of the big reasons cams wipe.