I came home from one of the "earlier" bashes  and my Mustang was  making a "funny" noise.(not ha-ha- funny....just funny-funny)
Anyhow......3 or4 of my roller lifters were trashed. The roller wheel was flat on a couple of lifters and one of the wheels was totally GONE!  I "suspected" the camshaft from Delta Cams was the problem.
After I sent it to them they called and said it was NOT the cam butt the lifters.
When I told him the stock lifters came from the junk yard engine I bought several years before...he laughed and said......"Mr. Mike...these things don't last FOREVER!!"
They sold me a new set of lifters (Delphi I think)  for less than Summits price and reground/touched-up the cam for free.
I like dealing with those guys. Cam was custom ground to what I wanted/and what they recommended . Ken was real helpful and turn-around wasn't long at all.
No probs with cam again(its been 4/5 years)
Jus say'in 
6sal6

Ouch. That’s ugly. And I was just about to order some Comp roller lifters!

You are not alone...
thread-comp-cams-roller-lifter-failure-again

I sleeved an aluminum block to fix some lifter bores once. A racer friend told us to use aluminum sleeves of the same thermal expansion material and use a high press fit. It has been running now for 10 plus years and no problems. He said that once he used brass ones and they did not stay in place. I have seen a lot of aluminum blocks at the track that had sleeves welded in. 

Are you sure those are Comp Cams roller lifters?  I looked at pictures of different lifters this morning, none of the lifters  Comps offers had the three ribs like yours pictured.  However, they do look like these.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fms-m-6500-r302h

Not that I doubt you, Im sure you know your parts list.  Maybe the Comps lifters and Ford lifters one and the same under different labels?   
Edit:  
Or these.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tfs-21400004
 

Last edited by Greg B (2/20/2018 10:43 AM)

MS wrote:

One downside of rollers is they do not rotate in their bores.

I've often wondered why someone hasn't developed a roller lifter where the roller on the bottom is a ball that can roll in any direction, similar to the ball on a ballpoint pen... then they could rotate in their bores and wouldn't need additional apparatus to keep them from spinning (i.e. dog-bone and spider or linked bar )
 

My Denver-based engine builder avoids Comp Cams lifters as he finds that while they come in a comp cams box, one set to the next may come from a different supplier.  He used to recommend the Ford lifters but since Ford doesn't make Windsor motors anymore, the quality of the replacements in recent years has been hit or miss as they are no longer made by the original supplier.  He also avoids the cams from comp as well as he finds many of their ramp designs are overly aggressive for no added value.  These ramps make it difficult for the lifter to follow which tends to make the valve train noisy and leads to customer complaints.  Also, the lifter is having to work a little harder to stay on the cam for no net gain.  Of course, I'm out of town and couldn't reach him to get his current lifter recommendation.  And, I'm sure that all the people that love comp cams will now post incessantly how this information is wrong.  I tend to trust someone who builds hundreds of these motors.

As far as the block and the original failure, I think that there are ways to sleeve lifter bores if the damage is too great to clean up.  While the root cause does appear to be roller failure you may want to carefully check the position of the cam to ensure it wasn't offset fore or aft which may cause the lifters to ride on the edge of the lobes.  Long shot but it is an aftermarket block and there can be machining and/or setup errors.  You may want to check some of the undamaged lobes to see if the roller pattern is properly centered.  It is more unlikely that the one lifter bore is out of position but never say never.

Last, the contact pressure from the point contact of a ball versus a roller would be huge and no cam would survive.  It all boils down to pounds per square inch and with point contact from a ball, the square inches is really small.  When you take the same load and spread it across the width of the roller, the cam, with good material, can survive.  If I am not mistaken, the rotation of the flat tappet lifters was meant to protect the lifter/cam contact and not the lifter bore.

I'll post again if I am able to reach my local shop as far has his current cam and lifter manufacturer recommendations.

I haven't heard of this happening much with hydraulic rollers, but it does happen enough with solid roller lifters on street driven cars. If it was mine I would have that lifter bore checked out in all ways possible. Just because a lifter will slide up and down does not mean it is true and straight. I would make sure your valve springs are stout enough for roller lifters with your cam profile, plus maybe you just had a bad lifter where the small spring inside gave way allowing the lifter to jump the ramp and pound the roller trunnion to bits.

I’ve heard nothing but good reviews on the Morel lifters.

MS- What cam was in it?

Morel lifters went in mine. It’s the go to option for the guys building FE’s to make a living over on those forums.

Gotta love Huberts "wing tip" racing shoes!!!!!!

MS wrote:

My Comp Cams camshaft was a custom grind, and not all that large.  @.050, 224-I and 232-E with .556 and .566 lift
112 lobe separation.

I found a Howard's cam with 272/278 (219/225 @.050) duration and .544/.533 lift.  112 lobe separation.  It is not that much different than the old cam.

I do not plan on racing this car.  I want it to be a good strong driver with lots of torque.

Still undecided on cam, but need to get one ordered ASAP..

​I have a cam that is really close to that Howards cam of yours.  Comp Cams - 218/224@0.050 .513 lift.  Lots of power from off idle to 5 grand.  (My 351W iron heads seem to die there.)  So, you can have a real stump puller with it.

​I think you would be happy with either one.
 

Last edited by lowercasesteve (2/21/2018 12:15 AM)