590 Purple Shaft wiping lobe

Are you sure that the #8 intake hole was in good "shape" ?

Cam was bought new on 4/20/10. Cant say 100 percent that the lifter bore was in perfect shape. But was when the engine was disassembled a few months ago before I installed these heads and cam.

Did it wipe the lobe during the break in process?

Yeah

Is the Lucas additive specifically for cam break in, or to boost zinc/phosphorus?

Break in additive, high in zinc I believe.

Break it in on the outer springs?

No, thought the only cams that needed this were those run of comp cams several years ago with bad cores.

There's the problem. You want a light spring pressure for a cam/lifter break in.Unless you're running a roller cam. Sorry to hear the bad news.I run that cam in my 408 and it likes it.I also run the Hughes springs #1111 and broke it in with just the outer spring.

Another suggestion... make sure your oil combination has plenty of zinc. The Valvoline oil won't by itself. I'm not so sure the Lucas has enough to compensate either. If you are starting with regular car oil, suggest you use the Comp cams break in additive or ZDPP. You need 1200+ PPM zinc for normal use perhaps 50% more - around 1800 - for breakin.

Another solution is diesel engine oil + STP. This has worked well for me. Both are available at any aut parts store or Walmart. Walmart usually stocks Rotella T in 10W30 which would be good for breakin.

Dummy it up. Sharpie a line on top of each lifter. Turn the assembled engine over. Which ever lifter doesn't rotate, swap lifter holes until they all do. Thanks to Jericogtx.

I always run a fine wire brush on a drill through every lifter bore to polish it up a little and reduce friction/hold oil on the wall like a cylinder wall, move the drill up and down to creat a cross hatch pattern like a cylinder also. Also if you rotate the engine over you can watch every lifter rotate as it goes over the lobe. If one don't rotate you can scuff the bottom of the lifter a little with some scotch brite or cover the entire lifter in electrical tape except the bottom, then hit it lightly with the sand blaster to give it a way to grip the cam. Another thing you can do is polish the sides of the lifter, again this is to reduce friction. One other thing I do to make sure the lifter bore is straight enough is to put blue dye over the bottom of the lifter, put it on the cam (NO OIL ON EITHER ONE) then rotate the engine a few revolutions and see if it wipes the blue off by the edge of the lifter, if it takes it all the way off the edge of the lifter it needs a straight hole drilled and bushed, this is less of a problem with crappy chevy lobes on a mopar cam (like mopar performance cams) but get some real lobes like a comp XE HL and this becomes more critical.

Following thease precautions I have built a lot of engines, most of them flat tappet and never lost a lobe yet

I was wondering the same thing.

yes you need to make sure it is rotateing the same way it will be when the engine is running.

IS THIS another reason to BUSH the lifter bores ? (never done it myself)

ON any motors I am going to be doing ...I am going to put a dab of white paint on each lifter top ... so when running you can look-down into the valley and see if they are spinning properly.

Real light spring pressure ? ... I have heard opinions that say that toooo light makes the lifter skid .. instead of spin.

NEVER had a cam problem .. and hope never to.

If you are running a super agressive mopar specific lobe then it is a good idea to check the lifter bores at a minimum, you can use my low buck method with the dye on the bottom of the lifter or you can have them checked at a machine shop. They need to be checked to make sure they are perfectly verticle over the cam lobe, not tilted front or back or even side to side.

As for checking the lifters for rotation while running, that is a great idea however, I would still check for rotation by hand upon instalation of a cam. It only takes a few minutes.