I about fell off my chair when I read this.

The guy completely insulted my intelligence. Took my heads elsewhere and got the performance bump that I wanted for less money, and what Dave told me was impossible. This was 25 years ago. So happy that I've never spent $1 with him. I've probably directed away from him $50,000 of business buy simply sharing my personal experience.

That said, cannot really speak to the quality of his stuff. Some people seem to like it.

How much expense was getting lifters rebuilt every 5 years?
Thats peanuts in the whole scheme of things
I had my crane ultra pro’s checked after 5 years and they were fine. Best machine looked at them
700 lift roller 273@50
Bet i had WAY more 1/4 mile hits and as much street driving as you did.
Go roller and don't look back

I have come to really like Howards cams stuff

I used the STL6468BS cam back i. The early 2000's , made good power. My problem was Hughes springs. They were crap. Didn't last 150 runs. Don't know if it was the ramps of the camp or spring material.

The expense I had in mind was not rebuilding roller lifters, but the expense in the flat tappet to roller gig. I used to send mine to PBM for rebuilding. I think it was $180 back then. Not sure what the cost to switch today would be, but I would guess $ 1600-$1700. I used the moral lifter back then, I think I paid $250 for a set thru PMB. I real bargain for roller lifters.

My son bought Hughes SER1620 grind. It has a nice mild sound in a 383 and very good power in a D200 pickup. Used Edelbrock springs in his Edelbrock aluminum heads.
But before he installed it I was looking at the cam and the fuel pump push rod lobe was rough cast and looked like it had not been ground, looked like no eccentric to it.

He called their shop and their answer was "Just install it and it will wear into each other." HUH, WTH??? NEVER!!!

He took it over to Delta Cams in Tacoma, 15 miles away and they checked the cam and said that it was as cast from core and had never been ground. So for $35 he chucked it in his grinder and made it right.

I will not buy one from them.

Its sure looking like Hughes should be the last place to buy a flat tappet cam, but what about their roller cams? I haven't heard of anyone using one yet. I have bought a bunch of items from them over the years and never had a problem with any of it as far as quality is concerned, but never a flat tappet cam. They are ok to deal with as long as your spending money and don't ask for a refund by the sounds of it. Oh, and don't ask questions or your in real trouble.

Ok. Now y’all have me worried 😱. I just bought and installed one of their hyd roller cam and expensive rockers setups but haven’t started it yet. I hope all goes well. I have another customer that I’m building a 440-6 motor that wants me to use a cam from them. He wants a hyd roller but he heard of their “ Mopar Profile” cam and is asking me about those as well. Looks like I need to give Dwane a call instead.

Call Jim at Racer Brown and save a headache.

I've had cams go flat. From a variety of sources. The biggest cause is operator error. For a time, it was junk lifters. I still inspect every single lifter, every time. If it doesn't have enough radius, it gets replaced. I also mic the OD. I've found some small lifters.

The other issue is worn lifter bores.

I've never, ever pulled the springs apart, never used a low ratio rocker.

Hughes doesn't grind his cams. Howard's does. And from a limited phone conversation, I wouldn't buy anything from Howard's. They don't agree with Hughes and his lobes, so they let [censored] slide. I've seen that with my own eyes. Hughes doesn't inspect every cam that goes out the door. He doesn't look at any of them. That's on Howard's. And if Howard's isn't into the deal, or can't stand Dave, then rather than send junk out, they should stop grinding his cams.

And don't think I'm defending Dave. He and I have had some epic phone battles. In person, we'd have probably thrown down. But it is what it is, and if he has something I need or want, I use it.

If anyone has ANY, ANY doubt about using an agressive lobe SFT cam, like the Comp MM series or some of the stuff Dave has, then don't use it. The margin of error with those lobes is almost zero, meaning if you don't do everything correct, you'll kill a lobe. If you aren't using a known ignition, a known carb, if you ain't 100% sure when you hit the button it will roll over and light, step down to a less agressive lobe.

I haven't had the chance to really study it out, but I know that some of the spring life issue come from flexing pushrods. As the lobe gets more agressive, you MUST get the pushrods stiffer. My next SFT deal will get 5/16-3/8 single taper pushrods at the minimum. I may go double taper. If I can fit them, I may go 3/8-7/16. I see way too much stuff with pushrods that are too flimsy for a decent 1980's lobe.

20 posts of people with bad experiences...and with all that said you want to ask if you should buy something from them?

I dont get the guy.... lol
Gets more advice than probably anybody in the history of Moparts

Agreed, the frequent stretched out inquisitive posts must be a hobby

When I’m curious about something or just plain don’t know, I ask the question. Don’t see the harm. Should I just stop posting after the first reply? I don’t get you. The minute someone doesn’t understand my comments or are rubbed the wrong way by them for whatever reason you always jump right in like a shark in a feeding frenzy.

I ran a big Hughes SFT cam in my 340 for over twenty years and in two different blocks. I broke it in originally with just the outer springs from Hughes. Put the inners in but they weren't enough pressure. Engine would float the valves at 7500. I don't remember exactly what I put in for a valve spring but IIRC they were about 220 on the seat and a little over 440 over the nose. Never had a problem with that cam running it to 8000. Sounded like a roller at idle too. So there is that. I still have that cam somewhere and wouldn't be afraid to run it again.

The bulk of the info is about Hughes flat tappet cams going flat, not roller cams going flat. Just thought I would ask about their roller cams as I will still purchase from Hughes, just not the flat tappet cams. I have no issues with their other products I have bought over the last 20 years or so.

I was gonna call them last summer and couldn’t find anything on them. Thought they were out of business. Good to hear their still grinding cams.

I got 4 engines with Hughes Flat tappet cams....one hydraulic flat tappet in a street car....couple more in spare short blocks...

Have broken them in with the dual springs......

never had any flat lobes.....

I just read through this thread
Would only buy from Hughes or Indy unless they were the sole source
HAve used lots of Engle with no more than the normal problems- mostly when pushing the envelope
As far as Howards and that kind of lobe I'd run dual springs set up light and break in on the outer
also I grind flats on the sides of hyd lifters similar to the ones sold by Rhodes (howards has them for some lifters) and this kind of flat was stock on 229 chevy v6 and some buicks
have not tried edm for hyd but would try
The .904 designed lobes will out performance the universal grinds
AS for the "Mopar grind" for HR no such think afik
First all HR retrofit kits are made by the same vendor AFIK let me know if any others
All have the small chevy size roller
A mopar HR could have the same base circle as a BBC but I do not know of any that do
In fact it's worse- many use masters that would work on Buick base circle or one that would work in a stroker chevy
We just do not have the numbers for customized grind lists- but that could change\- see below
Mopars also benefit from a larger lifter wheel .810-.815 no reason to use the smaller chevy sized wheel
the small wheel increases side loading...so at least get mopar sized rollers
Mke Jones inverse flank masters demonstraably outperform flat flank profiles solid or HR

One way to dial in your cam is to use a program like Controlled Induction software and generate your custom lift curve then take it to a grinder with CNC grinder and get your optimized cam solid, hyd, roller, hyd roller
you could also get away from the "most lift" dick comparison and roll the nose over so not pointy and limit the spring needed- and ensure the valve close is non bounce

happy new years

Great info. This is the type of info I look for when I start a post. I like to learn. Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

I have commented like i did above 2 or maybe 3 times ever on your threads. Thats over like 20 years. And its been when poster after poster( like in this thread) tell you the same thing over and over again.
At some point you probably should take consensus advice for what it is. Consensus advice.

i've ran Hughes solid cams for years. first one was in 2008. HTL5660AS SB stroker 410'', still going strong in 2020. last year i put in a HTL6468AS in my 360''. i have zero complaints with there cams.