So what "caused" the lifter to fail?

I'm no engine builder however,

My theory is the push rod was flexing and pole vaulting the valve train causing the lifter to seperate from the camshaft. Possibly flat spotting the roller needles and or fracturing them when the roller was reintroduced to the camshaft leading to the destruction.

It would be interesting to see what the roller needles look like on the other 15 lifters.

Sorry about your broken toy Galen

The question then becomes was it a lifter failure due to lack of lubrication at low speeds? I do not think a 230# seat pressure spring, is putting that much of a DIFFERENCE in load on his set up going from 6800 to 7200 just ONCE.I have many many BBM engines running .083 and .095 pushrods in bracket race engines with never a failure. Is the stiffer pushrod better? 100% yes. Is this what caused Galens breakage? I hardly doubt it.

Does he really have that aggressive of a lobe in that engine where it was surging or bouncing to the point of failure? ( I dont know his cam, apparently you do, so asking is it that aggressive?)

Again, its not a radical piece, and the RPM was not out of range for a 230/650ish spring.
You know and I know thta lifters just simply dont " fail". ( I am NOT bashing the lifters here, has nothing to do with the " brand" here in my opinion) It would have to have been surging for a long time to beat the needles out of it.

Just my , send me a PM if you want instead of here. Not sure if its " all on the table" here. Thanks.


And yes, Galens a good dude.

Thanks for the help guys. I am going to send the lifters to Brian so he can take a look at them. The cam I am running is a comp RX296 R8. 263/270 at .050. Lift is .650/.651 with 1.5s. I am running a 1.6 Harland sharp and a 943-16 spring. I had to go with a plus ..050 retainer to get my spring height. I aired on the side of clearance and set the installed height at .950. In doing so my spring pressure may be lower than I expected. I am going to check all spring heights and pressure and will report my findings. I have to figure this is an error on my part. I am thinking a few little ones that added up to my failure. My main objective is to find out why and prevent it next year. I will keep you all posted and run the game plan by you on the repair. No hole in the world block, no broken head, thankfull for that. I went from brad Penn to Royal purple, that may have been a mistake also. Going to look at some bearings. I have pics but I have to get my kids over to help me get them off this stupid camera. It's still good to be a mopar guy

Can't rule out pushrod flex as a contributor, but even good roller tappets can't take any air gaps - the needles just snap and escape, the roller wheel collapses onto the axle, blah.
Even though this may not be a quality problem at all, you must examine the other 15.
The Harley-Davidson roller test (since they all have them since 1929) is:
1. does it rotate freely, no scratchy spots or drag
2. end-play is the same on all tappets
3. zero up-&-down play

Definitely need to check springs I.H. and check again for pressure. When hot they lose approx. 20lbs. on the seat so if they were close to 200 cold then that is biggest problem but not sure that's what the springs are so we have to wait.

Pushrods probably didn't help anything and if the springs were weak allowing valve bounce this would be amplified by the thin wall pushrods.

Galen, did you go to a thinner oil when you switched to Royal Purple? Thinner oils allow more spring temp too.
Brian

Thinner oils allow more spring temp too

I suspect (no actual data) that thinner oil may have lower surface tension, and form smaller droplets in the cover, get around better, and cover more area before draining.
I'm surprise that I haven't seen more remarks about something already in use elsewhere: a lower spring cup on the spring OD, normally used to prevent chafe and locate the spring (rather than a seat on the guide OD) with a taller lip than normal. The cup retains some oil, and when the spring is really moving, it acts like a bird in a birdbath - it splashes the oil out of the cup very nicely.

AFAIK the most important factors in using oil to transfer heat are:
1. volume
2. motion (is it passive, or does it drain away constantly)
3. area (how large a heated surface is washed)

Oil from the rockers etc. that can "find" a narrow deep channel to the drains is going to do less than oil that must pass over the exhaust guide bosses, exhaust port rooves, and spring bases first. Examine your head's upper surface - sometimes there are obvious areas where a simple piece of sheet metal creates a longer path.
Some engines have drains adjacent to hot spots - here, drilling the drain slightly oversize 1/4" deep and inserting a thin tube 3/8" tall (old conduit, etc.) makes the oil pool out and cover the hot area 1/8" deep before reaching the drain opening. This is even possible with some pushrod holes. Remember to analyze this as the engine sits in the chassis, both as to front/rear and left/right.

Galen,do you ever blow the tires off hard in 1st and then click 2nd gear ??That creates HAVIC in the valve train Don't ask how I know Here is a picture of your lifter