Aloha yall! quick back story i got the car, seen a video of the motor running from a couple years ago... she turned over n kicked off couple times when I got her but didn't want to push it. pulled the intake, valve covers, valvetrain and she was real greasy, caked up... been brushing, picking n flushing for a couple months now. it was an old ladys car and obviously before the lady passed her n her husband didn't do much oil changing or driving.

anyway the lifters are toast after soaking... glad I didn't put them back in n try to run it. once I save up more money I'm going to upgrade the cam, heads, intake, carb, valvetrain, rod and main bearings... its all I can really do in my dirt floor tarp shop on an island with no machine shops.

here's where I'm at now, I'd like to put some new affordable lifters in button it up for now and run it to start flushing out the oil passages and move the car to another dryer spot on the land. I attached pictures of the cam to get some opinions on whether or not that can be done. if I have to get a cam too I have about 700 I can put towards the motor to be able to run it, get her moved and start flushing it. oh n orange is not rust its from pb blaster mixed in oil, zinc, diesel n the varnish from I m the old oil... it mostly wipes off.

appreciate the help, Mahalo!

Good luck there. Most of the affordable, if not all of them, are not good and most of the good lifters aren't cheap.

Lifters are toast as in what is wrong with them?

There are videos all over YouTube showing how new lifters are being sold that have not being ground correctly so you have to check the machined surface on the face of them before installing them no matter who you buy from. Most of these parts only come from a handful of places and are just put in different boxes so you may be getting the same parts no matter who you buy from. You can have old lifters resurfaced/refurbished if they are still workable. People are now sending brand new flat tappet lifters out to get the crown surface corrected, which is ridiculous to have to spend more money on a new parts, but it's either that or the lifters are not going to rotate like they are supposed to.

It's like the people that used to do this job right all retired and the new people who have taken their place are not capable of doing the same work, or they just don't know they are doing it wrong??? These big cam and lifter companies need to do something as their reputation is pretty tarnished right now. They blamed the oil for a long time, but now it's coming back around to bad machine tolerances.

This guy has several video's on lifter problems to watch. https://youtu.be/k_ExoIuTpks?si=ksdOrp06H0sS7NsK

One video I watched a different guy tested lifters from a number of vendors, and the ones that Hughes supplied had promising numbers so you could try there. The cam in a 2 barrel engine is going to be tiny with lower valve spring pressures to match so that will certainly help.

the oil must have become to acidic from not being changed all those years then i spiraled them in a solution with vinegar n mineral spirits

Just use what you got. Replace the lifters with melling's, or put whole new cam lifters. You pick. If those were just rust pits in the old lifter they will work for your purpose. If I understand what you are trying to do.

But is that cam also nearly toast already? Is that spalling on the ramps of a couple of lobes pictured?
Any new lifters will be a one time use on that cam, the unknown is how much "use".

Years ago I soaked some Magnum 5.9 V8 pistons in eight different commercial liquids to see what would remove caked on carbon deposits from the piston tops.

Liqui Moly Ventil Sauber, a German made product BMW dealers used to stock, did noticeably better than Techron, ATF+2, Gumout, Seafoam, etc

Those lifters look rough with significant outer surface corrosion,
but it might be worth disassembling one, soaking and inspecting.

I seem to remember a leak down test in old FSM’s.

Almost every original cam I've seen has pitting like shown. They seem to be fine since the engines had been running prior. The lifter shown does look rough, but the outer edge won't have contact with the cam anyway. I would do as B1MAXX suggests and just run them. Put the lifters back in their original lifter bore, put some good engine oil in and try it. Maybe inspect them again after a short period of run time. All you will be out is some time. If they are getting worse, then you'll need to address them. Like mentioned, new stuff is a crap shoot, so I'd try to keep the original stuff if you can. Just my

In the video posted by Neil the machine shop owner explains he no longer sells or resurfaces flat tappet lifters. Just oo much BS. Over 20 years ago I thought the biggest detriment to the old car hobby would be the cable TV show pimped oversize wheels and "Pro Touring" theme. But something that has always been reliable and inexpensive - hyd cam and lifter kits are now a liability. Even Hydro rollers can fail to pump up and remain pumped up.

My brother took auto repair class in High School in the early 90's, and they rebuild stock type engines and put them back into the vehicles when they were done. There was no fretting over breaking in the cam + lifters, or the need to use exotic oils or oil additives. The biggest worry they had was getting the rings to seat so it wouldn't smoke or use oil. They started them up, set the timing and carb, and drove them around the parking lot to check for issues, and that was it.

I think the OP should buy a new set of lifters and have them measured up and verify they rotate in the bores when the motor is turned over. If they pass both those tests I think you would be pretty safe on this camshaft, which is likely quite mellow.

ordered up some Johnson hy-lift lifters from Hughes, I also have some comp cams assembly lube. today I'm going to do a final clean on the old lifters and reinstall for priming and rotating the motor... I'm worried my cleaning solution ate the original lifters up too much to run them in the motor? what do you mean by "measured up?" pretty sure it's the stock 1962 383 2brrl cam.