ok heres my problem.. i have a 385 stroker and it has gone throught 2 solid lifter camshafts in less than 2000 miles.. it has a new forged rotating assembly with a set of brodix racerite 200 heads.. the first cam went down because i forgot about valve spring seat loads.. 1200 miles and its flat on 7 lobes.. my fault.. but it was only the intake lobes which i used 1.6 ratio rockers.. all the exhaust lobes were fine.. so the bearings, cam and lifters were tossed.. in went a bigger solid cam, but this time the correct valve springs were installed on the brodix heads.. the springs that Comp Cams recommended to me.. this time, everthing goes great, loads of power, awesome idle that rattles the *****, etc, etc.. ok heres the problem, we break-in the motor for 30 minutes as usual and then i drive it for not even 400 miles and one lobe is flat already.. its very confusing because only one lobe went down.. i ask my machinist, the guys at Comp Cams, and many other old time racers and they have no clue what happened or what could have possibly caused this problem.. we used valvoline racing 20-50 oil.. everything cleaned thoroughly by myself before motor was built.. had great oil pressure, ran 180º most of the time and never went over 190º.. this solid lifter cam thing is bugging the crap outta me.. i'm gonna try it one more time and if it's the same result i'm going roller.. junk part is that Comp Cams wont give me a refund because i didnt remove the inner springs for break-in.. my machinist has built many motors with solid flat tappet cams and never removed the inner springs and those motors ran for 3-4 racing seasons.. any help on why my motor wont last even 400 miles would help..

 

junk part is that Comp Cams wont give me a refund because i didnt remove the inner springs for break-in.


That's the ticket. you "have" to remove the inner springs when breaking in any wild high lift solid/hydraulic flat tappet cam.
the more lift at the valve the more spring pressure the cam lobe will get at peak cam lift. especially with a higher ratio(1.6) rocker arm.
replace the cam do another breakin without the inner springs and you should be good to go.

 

valvoline racing 20W50 ? That's not synthetic is it?

I'd say use a straight 30W oil. Any old dyno juice, with GM EOS or other cam manufacturers break in lube in a bottle.
Then after break in, use Rotella T oil, I can only find it in 15W40.

 

Use Moly Disulfide grease on the cam lobes and lifter bottoms.
Add a can of Moly slip to the oil for break in too.
Make sure the lifters can spin freely in their bores.
make sure the valve lash is correct on all the valves. You can actually set it a little tighter for break in. .002"

Run stock ratio rockers for break in. remove the inner spring coil. How much spring pressure are you using?.
Do you have oil gallery restrictors in the top end? If so, use the solid lifters with the tiny oil hole in the face. Is the cam striking the crank at high rpm?