how long are the hydraulic roller lifters good for? i've got an LT1 cam itchin to go in, but dad's (a hot rodder himself) recommending throwing in new lifters too. Its an L03 with 145k miles on it. i know, lots of miles, but waiting for the 350 in the truck to die before i swap..... thanks

 

you have hydraulic roller lifters. they are good for a really really long time. you do not need to replace them to do the swap. if your dad is old school he is prolly thinking of hydraulic flat tappet lifters that woudl have to be replaced and actually shoudl only be run on one cam and always shoudl be used on hte same lobe of the same cam forever. with the rollers this is not an issue since they do not develop a wear pattern like a flat tappet would.
if you had a bad lifter that needed to bne replaced, believe me, you would know it by now. you motor woudl sound horrible and you woudl have whacked the lobe off teh cam in about 10miles of driving.
the moral of trhe story, reuse the stock lifters adn push rods. the only thing you shoudl replace is the valve springs.

later
tim

 

thanks, thats all i needed to know. anyone else that can back him up? not that i dont trust ya, but having more than one person agreeing is more assuring. thanks

 

I just trebuilt my L03 about a month ago. It had 145K on the speedo (and engine). I replaced the stock cam with a Crane CompuCam and re-used to old lifters. Like Tim said, roller lifters only need to be replaced if there is a problem with them. When you remove the old lifters, check to make sure the rollers roll easily and smoothly. If they do, throw them back in on your new cam....they will be fine!

Later,
Mike