Ever seen all 16 lobes and lifters eaten up?
I have an engine (mark IV 454 Chevy) a friend brought to me to fix. He rebuilt it and used an Elgin hyd. flat tappet cam kit. Real mild...230 @ .050". It lasted for 15 minutes of break-in time before the problems started.
All 16 lobes have started to wipe. Usually only see one or two.

Oil is full of glitter. It was real tight trying to turn it over. The crank will definitely need to be turned.

Even the piston pins are really tight. They're just cheap cast Sealed Power flattops w/ pressed pins, so he'll likely be buying pistons too. I'm thinking it has shrapnel in the pin bores causing them to tighten up. Junk or do you know of a way to cure this?

The timing set is suspect...there's visible galling b/t the block and the cam gear. I'm wondering if shrapnel from that caused the lifters to stop rotating and eat itself. The timing set is a cheap standard set w/ an aluminum cam gear.

FWIW...he did everything "right" for break in...zinc additive, fired up and ran at 2k rpm, etc.

I know this isn't a Mopar, but still a fairly common flat tappet failure issue. Trying to tap into some of the knowledge here for some insight.

Timing set

I just helped a friend put a small comp flat tappet hydraulic cam in a 318. Everything went together great, lifters moved nice and free, used the proper oil, etc. Break in went well, we even drove it about 20 miles that evening. The next day he drove it to his dads house and didn't even make it 20 miles before enough of the lobes were gone it would no longer go. He bought a magnum core engine to freshen up and throw in, no more lifters without wheels for him lol.

This guy is a believer now too, lol. I tried to talk him into a roller, but the price scared him off...now here we are. It will be getting a hyd. roller.
I've built a few flat tappet motors in the past few years and all have done fine, but I don't like to chance it. Every time I tell them...I'll do everything I can to make it live, but if it eats itself, it's yours.

absolutely right, I am scared to death to build any engine with a flat tappet camshaft, my personal experience and that of others in my area who build engines is the junk they are selling will not survive no matter how particular you are about break-in. I rented my dyno to a guy just to break-in his camshaft, he has a background as a machinist, so he is very particular, we did everything by the book, I helped him swap to stiff springs did a couple pulls and engine made decent HP, two weeks later it is flat. I build about 15 engines a year, every flat tappet engine that comes in has flat or very worn lobes, many are recent builds. Again I know a guy who has built engines all of his life did a mild 289 for a mustang restoration, cam did not survive 30 minute run time. And I could go on and on.

Why does it look like there is supposed to be something bolted on the end of the block at the cam hole ?? I know little about a Big Block Chevy

They're drilled for a retainer plate that's used in reverse rotation marine applications. Not used otherwise.

Thanks

Those lifters are fugly!!!

Whose are they, and how much run time?

Exactly what oil was used?

How were the springs set up?

It wasn’t a situation where the rockers were OE style, and the slot was contacting the stud?

I know you know how to break in a cam…….. just looking for a few more details.

It was an Elgin cam, lifter, spring kit. 15 minutes of run time.
I'm pretty sure he used Amsoil oil. His nephew is an Amsoil dealer so he gets it from him. Not sure what weight. He also added a bottle of zinc additive.
130 psi seat pressure at 1.88" installed height.
Crane Energizer roller rockers. The cheaper cast aluminum silver rockers.

ELGE929PM
Elgin, Hydraulic Flat Tappet Camshaft & Lifter Set, Chevrolet Big Block, 231/231 @ .050, .544/.544, 109 LC
Adv. Duration: 292/292
Duration @ .050": 230/230
Lift: .544/.544
Lobe Separation: 109 LC
Includes Lifters: PVT652394 Hyd. Flat Tappet
2200-5400. Very strong mid-range, choppy idle.

It ran for about 15 minutes until it started getting hot. He shut it down and let it cool off, then it didn't want to turn over. Cranked real slow. He pulled the plugs out and it turned over better...next he pulled a valve cover and found some rockers turned sideways. Obviously saw the glitter in the oil at that point. Then he proceeded to get violently ill.

I just ran five years on a .650 lift solid lifter cam in my small block. And I even run alcohol. Brad Penn (Penn Grade) oil and EDM lifters. I would put it in another engine tomorrow.

I wonder where Elgin is sourcing the lifters.

With all that I’m seeing I’m leaning toward a very dirty engine, (oil passages not cleaned) to start with. Did he make sure the lifters turn easily in their bores first?

It is more expensive but cheaper than two flat tappet cams and a tear down lol.

I try and talk customers out of FT cams these days……… but those who haven’t had one fail during break in are often willing to still try a FT.

John, with all respect, in my opinion folks were not having these problems five years ago, at least folks who knew what they were doing.

Now you see folks that know what they are doing have problems all the time.

Until something changes I would never use a flat tappet cam again.

We heard this five years ago and five years before that. People use crap oil, won’t clean things right, and don’t pay attention to details.

Being all 16 are bad my guesses are:

Improper pre-lube of lifter/cam
Bad batch of lifters
Maybe double check the diameter of the lifters as my father in law had a set years ago where 1 was smaller diameter than the rest. Maybe these 16 are larger than spec and weren't turning.
Way too much valve spring pressure

This video is worth watching.
https://www.google.com/search?q=lif...DMgkIARBFGDsYwgMyCQgCEEUYOxjCAzIJCAMQRRg
Doug

My guess is this cam may have not received the parkerized or nitride heat trading process. We always pay extra for nitride on our hyd f.t. resto type engines.