Powell machine has a couple videos saying about the same thing this guy is. It's the machining and harness on the crown of the lifters.

Agree. Lots of mystery sourced flat tappet lifters out there that look right to the naked eye, but are not up to the task when put in use. Today everything needs to be measured before installed. When these cam companies say they are selling USA lifters they could be selling lifters that are only finished machined here while the raw castings came from Asia or Mexico, or ????, and are of a lower quality metal to start with. The Hylift ones are semi-pricey, even direct from them, so when these other places say they have USA lifters, but they are notably cheaper than the Hylift ones you can guarantee they are not the Hylift USA made lifers.

Regrinding old lifters is also a viable option as you know the metal is good. If they have not gone south yet after years of use they are probably not going to.

Then there is the oil and oil additives that need to be taken into consideration. ZDDP has been a big deal for years, but this guy says the quantity of it is important or you risk creating problems if you play garage chemist on your own.. https://youtu.be/erxjPicpYyw?si=zFEX9rMAtN_4EacX

Top chamfer good or bad?

1/2 the vids say none to use the full face and some think its good like the one vid posted here.

I used to by some of the closeout MP kits from summit. Anyone who bought one know the crap packing and you end up with 16 unboxed banged up lifters. I think they used comp as thats the replacements they always sent me.

Id bet these refacing machines are in somewhat high demand. Even more so in places outside the USA.

I'm unsure how important the chamfer is. I bought some Hylift solids from Hughes years ago, and the chamfer is noticeable, and a tad rough looking under a magnifying glass like what is mentioned in the video. I also have multiple sets of older GM SBC lifters from 60's and 70's core engines leftover that I never got around to disposing, and they have a very very minimal chamfer edge compared to the Hylifts.

GM offers a Taxi Cab lifter that comes with a hardened steel foot on the base, and people online say they generally hold up pretty well over a standard lifter. Too bad nobody does this for a Mopar type lifter. https://www.gmperformancemotor.com/category/BB254.html

Fwiw the old GM lifters I have are obviously worn and need to be re-cut if a guy wanted to reuse them again, but they are not smoked out like what you see today when guys post up examples of ones that have gone flat. It's like the current metal on cheaper lifters is only hardened so far and once you get thru the top layer everything under it is no where near as hard and the metal goes away very quickly.

Just had Schneider cams regrind cam and lifters for a 1954 Chevy 235 6 cylinder. They are solid not hydraulic though. The cam was going to them for a performance regrind since there are no new cores, so send the lifters at the same time. they look like brand new.

Maybe a little off topic but has anyone here ever had an EDM style liver fail ? I installed a Howards cam and lifter set with EDM lifters and the cam and lifters looked new when I changed them out.

Gus

My only input would be to use flat tappet specific break in oil. Not oil and an additive.

I had not broken in a cam recently. Last one I did 2 years ago failed. My research at the time concluded the additives in modern oil strip the break in film off the flat cam.

The second cam was broken in the exact same way except for the flat tappet break in oil. Worked perfectly.

Bet most of the people doing this lifter refacing work are all using the same brand of machines, or machines that may be made by different companies, but they are all very similiar in function.

Honestly we should not really be having to do this at all unless it's for lifters that can no longer be purchased. This is just one more unnecessary hoop to jump through when building an engine that was far less of a problem until recently. Now even stock engines are susceptible to failures when it used to be an issue more for guys using race spec valve springs with far more resistance to moving..

https://youtu.be/LJPnCA8N-P8?si=Y555bb7ruPG7RbHL
https://youtu.be/UPvF4FgJYlk?si=IG3vRbQCLqcRdMzH

I think the article about Hy-Lyft mentions inferior castings that some companies use. So while having lifters re-ground is a new “hoop to jump through”, I think regrinding a lifter that was in service before sort of tells you it was a decent casting/core to start with.

So, if you start with a good core lifter and it is properly re-ground and all the proper break in procedures are adhered to, if you experience a cam failure then that sort of points to a bad cam.

I'm convinced it's more lifters taking out the cams as far as what is driving the issues right now. Cams are cast iron, and should be more durable in a friction environment than the cast steel lifters. The two materials have to be durable yet different at the same time otherwise the friction value increases.

This has been covered in several threads on Speed Talk. Cam King guy posting in there is in the cam business himself, and knows where everything is made as he buys cam cores and resells lifters with his camshafts.

https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36327

I take it there is no heat treating tobe concerned about?

Lifters are likely case hardened or heat treated as far as I can find reading up on all this. The guy at Delta Cams says this is not an issue with regrinding lifters or cams as so little material is removed during the process. Only a very minor amount is needed to be removed on the outsides to get the taper restored.

If I recall correctly Isky offered chilled iron lifters as did Chrysler OE in some situations.

Your correct on Isky offering those "chill iron" lifters years ago but I have no idea what the cam material had to be to warrant using that special type of lifters, steel or whatever

back in my junkyard ownership days, [1974-1984/85] we commonly gave away lifters from scrap engines to guys that needed just one or a couple of 'em, for everything from a stock engine to a race only engine, and never had a single complaint about cam or lifter failures.
i don't have a clue if any "re-break in" was ever done, or if any "break-in lube" was even used.
even replaced lifter[s] myself on several big and small block engines that had the lifter[s] come apart from a multitude of reasons, [bent push rod[s], failed snap rings on hydraulic lifters, push rods poking through rocker arms allowing lifters to pop out of their bores getting chewed up from banging into other moving parts, broken adjuster bolts on solid lifters, etc.] with scrap engine lifters, and not doing anything other than just firing up the engine and driving for many, many more thousands of miles.
did it have to do with the materials used and the manufacturing methods ? who knows ?

Did same, when a new lifter was bought just stick it in and go. The only wiped lifters I ever heard about were SB Chevys.