At one time, it was fairly easy to buy a set of roller lifters. I have always used comp cams 829 roller lifters and have not has a single problem. However, I am building a new build and want good reliable lifters. I was about to order a new set and I got curious which is better, solid bushed or needle bearing lifters and why to each. I have read so much on this subject now and I am not sure I am any better off than I was before I started reading on the subject.

Dan Jesel has a really good write up on the bushed vs bearing lifters and he still prefers the bearings, many others however, prefer the bushed. Just wondering what every ones experience has been on this subject and which one you use and why?

Thanks for your thoughts!

It seems for Mopar blocks its not a cut and dry answer. For example if you have a lifter bushed block and want to utilize the pressurized axle blearing option than you have to use a customized lifter body, most likely a chevy bodied .903 lifter with a properly positioned drilled hole in the bushing to align with the oil band in the lifter.
With that said, I don't think I would use a bushed lifter without the Hipo option. That's my just my opinion. I will be trying them out for the first time myself. I had Crower build me a set of bushed lifters using the Chevy .903 bodies and Mopar BB tie bars. Not a big deal for them to do.

AG.

My Comps spread and failed needles at about 150 passes. My Isky Redzone bushed have over 650 passes. They were checked at 550 passes. Zero spread, wheels tight.
Doug

I tried a set of bushed lifters in one of my predator combos, i had bad results, with only one pass, one of the lifters froze, wiping out a $750 camshaft.. the valve springs were over 1200 lbs open ,and they were very good quality lifters... one of my friends, runs nhra pro stock has tested a set with similar results...... Buyer beware... I'm sure the bushing lifters may be better by now, but once bitten twice shy......

This is pretty much what Dan Jesel was thinking too.

This is the first time hearing about bushing failures in lifters, but with anything new i think it just comes with the territory. How many needle bearing failures has there been? They seem way more common.

Explain then why mine live? I went with them on a sugestion from my friend who runs Super gas and Super Comp. Both are 600+ BB chevys with over an 1" of lift and 1000bs over the nose. They haven't hurt any bushed lifters either.
Doug

Continuous wear (loosening up the roller internals) is, IMHO, not the real danger.
Except for hydraulic rollers, the lash (as set, or loose) is taken up violently when the opening ramp smacks the roller sideways. The hit is only taken by the few rollers immediately adjacent to the point of contact, nothing like the entire set of rollers. This impact will shatter the needles, especially when lash gets above spec. I suspect that even one broken roller may lead to failure.

I wonder if anyone has made any correlation between a dry sump, oil restricted, tightly controlled internal oil windage environment to roller lifter failures.
AG.

There is more rollers that feed the needles direct oil these days. I started running the comp 8043-16s last summer. So far so good but they loose a lot of oil and I need to figure out a way to restrict it.

The only roller failure I have had was on the same position I lost the needles from a rocker arm(Erson). I changed rocker arm sets all together and moved on. When I tore the motor down over a year and over 1000 miles later that lifter was messed up. I am assuming it was messed up the whole time because I never saw a lash change after the new rocker arms were installed. That means I drove the car several months and did Drag Week in 2018 with a messed up roller that I wouldn't discover until I tore it down in 2019. Only slight damage to the cam that I re-used until this year.

I have no experience w/ bushed lifters, but my understanding is a bushed lifter needs pressurized oiling.
My KB block doesn't feed oil to the lifters at all. Just splash and drainback oiling. I have Isky Red Zone lifters w/ needle bearings from 2006 before they offered bushed lifters. Haven't had any issues w/ them.

Mine bushed lifters have pressurised oiling. How ever until this past year the axle oil hole was .045" below the bottom of the lifter bushing at base circle. Not to mention the lifter bushings were loose at around .0025"-.003". So there was plenty of oil running around the lifter. It also pushrod oils. That wasn't an issue. The new bushings are fit at .0015" and hang down far enough to cover the wheel/axle oil feed hole. However they ran 550 passes in the previous configuration.
Doug

I’ve put around 7,800 miles on a set of bushed Comp 96829B, half dozen passes, my cam seems kinda mild though. I replaced those with regular Comp 96829 with needle bearings. I would’ve kept using the bushed lifters but they were on back order when I needed them.

Stock unbushed 440 block with an oil restriction to the driver’s side lifters. If you don’t have lifter oiling, I don’t think I’d use bushed lifters. I’m the opposite of an expert, it seems people have made it work, but I’d think that’s a needle bearing application rather than a bushing

Splash only and I have 600 passes on some Howard's bushing lifters. I have heard they are probably all made by one company, but none the less. no problem with mine.

I went with crower bushed lifters this go around on my hemi. The 829’s I use to run needed rebuilt often. With comp no longer rebuilding them the choice to upgrade is easy. I had best machine bush my block.

My oil pump couldn't digest the lifter needles very well. I went with Isky bushed lifters.

I like the Morel black mamba. No bushing in the wheel. Dissimilar metal axle. Oiling -through- axle rather than directed towards it.

Basically, the way I understand it is it comes down to the oiling. The bushed lifters have about .0015 clearance and need good forced oiling so they don't increase the friction on the bushing. If they don't have the proper oiling, the friction increases. Sounds like you have really good lifter oiling. I personally do not have a preference, but the bushed lifters got my attention, for the reasons you stated.

I had heard this before which is why I went with the bushed roller. I also have a hydraulic system filter on my pickup to keep stuff out of the pump.