I finally got my firebird going, broke in the new cam, new lifters, new heads, new everything. Everything was going awesome, car was fast as ****, then, suddenly it starts running like crap and no amount of rocker arm adjusting, carb tuing or timing adjustments fixs the problem.........so I pull off the valve cover, and i find that the #7 exhaust pushrod is sitting about an 1/4 of an inch lower than the rest, so I pull out the lifter.........HOLLY ****. The bottom of the lifter is COMPLETELY caved in. I mean....imagine what would happen if you smushed a baseball into some sand, thats what the bottom of the lifter looks like, and ONLY this lifter.....the rest look flat and beautiful. I can't really look down into the block and inspect the lobe on the cam......but it looks like the middle of the lobe is shiny and the sides have a bit of parkerizing still...............how do i know if my cam is ****ed up or not? How could this happen????? I had plenty of cam lube on all the lifter bases and all the cam lobes, and everything was set up right.........the only thing out of the ordinary is me and a buddy had a hard time getting the rockers to quiet down so we spent a lot of time screwing with the valve lash.......maybe we tightened that #7 down too much and it ground itself a concave shape?!?!?!? Do you think my cam is still good??? I only drove the car maybe 30 miles total. Motor specs are in the sig, except its not a roller cam...its a flat tappet Extreme Energy 284 grind. Where's my gun at.

 

Replace the cam..it's done. Even if you just replace the lifters and it looks ok now..the cam will wipe that lobe in a few hundred, maybe thousand miles.

prolly had it too tight.

 

Well ****. Replaced the lifter, car drives better than ever. Guess we'll see how long it lasts.

 

Call Comp Cams ASAP and report your situation. You may get a warranty replacement from them, but you'll need to file a claim before you get a lot of miles on the engine. If everything works out, great. If not, you'll at least have the initial claim registered and there should be less difficulty getting a replacement cam.

 

willling to bet the cam lobe wasn't cut on a taper to allow the lifter to rotate in the bore, or possibly the lifter wasn't rotating period. Either way pull the cam and get it replaced. cheers, Bob

 

Well, summit's sending me a new cam free of charge. Lifters are autozone 3 month warranty so I'll get those for free, but *** damn it, I have to pull off the timing chain cover and intake again!! @#%##@$#@$