My engine (440) is getting rebuilt. I am working with the machine shop. We decided to go with a retrofit roller cam. The shop suggested Comp Cams but I kind of like Crane Cams. The Crane Cams lifters cost $280 more and there is one bad review on Summit. Should I pay the extra for Crane lifters or go with Comp? Thanks in advance.

Howards Cams uses Gaterman lifters and they are premium Just make sure you don't use too much spring pressure

Gus

Thank you Gus. I looked up Howards Cams. They look good. I was reading their reviews on FB. I found a lot of positive reviews but also found 3 people that said the lifters failed and destroyed the engine. Then I started researching Crane Cams and Comp Cams. I couldn't find reviews on Crane Cams but a lot of reviews on Comp Cams. I found more than 3 people who said the lifter broke and destroyed the engine. They might be the same failure rate assuming Comp sells more cams than Howards. Now I am second thinking this roller cam idea. I mean I really like the idea of a roller cam but I don't have deep pockets. If the lifters fail I just can't justify spending another $5K to fix this engine again. My Dodge Avenger has 170K miles on it and the lifters are still good. Why can't these aftermarket companies make a lifter that lasts. Or are the production numbers so high that the failure rate is minimal? This sucks. Is it really worth the risk and expense to go with a roller cam?

Are you wanting to use hydraulic or solid rollers? Did you have trouble with your old cam? How do you drive the car?

The problem with online reviews is there is no way to know if there really was an issue with the part or if something else caused the failure.

I was going to go roller on my current build but went with a medium flat tappet solid cam instead. With the new EDM lifters and good oil I figured I could make a flat cam survive and still have some awesome performance without spending $1500 on a roller valve train

Gus

Have you looked at Hughes?

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/index.php

Do your homework now while it’s still easy to change directions.

Do a search for “hydraulic roller lifter noise”, there will be tons of hits.
Read through several threads on several different sites and you will discover that no brand of lifters is without dissatisfied users........ and that sometimes you’re still going to end up with something fairly noisy.

If after all that reading you still want to try the HR...... at least you’re doing so being better informed about the possible pitfalls.