Hi all,

I have an issue with my TPI engine and I need new roller lifters. I've been offered some second hand racing roller lifters at the same price I can buy brand new factory replacements.

Although my engine is modified with a custom roller camshaft, head work etc, it's still a mild street engine and certainly not a racing engine.

So what will racing lifters do for me? Are they designed more to be used at higher RPMs all the time? Which am I better to go for in an everyday car and why?

 

Do you have any idea who made the lifters? I assume they are hydraulic rollers. Racing lifters can have different meanings to different people. Morrels come to mind and they are a very good lifter. However you might be better off with brand new factory lifters. They are very good and hard to beat. If they are from Comp Cams stay away from them.

 

No sorry I don't know who made the lifters, I suppose I could ask though. Yes they are hydraulic rollers. What's so bad with Comp Cams lifters? I've seen some lifters that have the small links between the pairs to stop them rotating in the lifter bores whereas mine have a keeper and a spider leg holding them in place. What sorts of things might determine a racing lifter compared to a factory replacements?

 

There's nothing wrong with Comp lifters. They're most likely Sealed Power or Melling, but I don't know who they're buying the factory style rollers from these days. Don't worry about that.

It's basically impossible to exceed the limits of stock lifters with TPI on top of a motor. TPI protects you from ever needing a cam that's aggressive enough to need anything better.

You can use link-bar lifters in place of the factory dog-bone and spider arrangement, IF AND ONLY IF they are the ones that are extra tall so that the link bars don't hit the top of the lifter bore before the lifter can descend far enough into the bore to meet the cam's base circle. However, a set of link-bar lifters will cost you about 3 to 4 times what factory style ones cost.

Lifters ALMOST NEVER "go bad".

Most likely, you will be wasting your time and money changing out your lifters. Unless you know FOR SURE that they're bad somehow, like, you have one in your hand and the axle is rough or something like that, they're probably not the cause of whatever problem you're attributing to them.

You might do better to tell what you're car is doing wrong, as well as what it's actually built out of (clearly your signature is not applicable), and get some suggestions.

 

Thread on Comp lifters. http://web.camaross.com/forums/showthread.php?t=394574

 

I haven't seen with my own eyes what these "racing" lifters look like, a guy I know at a cylinder head shop has them. I guess if I get extra tall linked lifters I'll need shorter push rods.

When I rebuilt this engine with a complete tear down, everything was cleaned and/or had some work done to it. Head work to the factory heads was done, I ported the TPI plenum, new cam custom cam shaft, 24 pound injectors with injector constant changed, fitted new parts where deemed necessary (like rings etc etc) and cleaned old parts so they were like new. It's a 1989 5.0L TPI engine.

When it came to the lifters, I let them soak in solvent, pulled them apart, cleaned and reassembled them and let them soak in oil overnight before getting installed in the engine. After that, about a month or two went past before I completed the engine and started it. From the beginning the rockers would not adjust properly. The engine seemed happiest with the rockers set loosely with a noisy valvetrain and revved freely.

After putting the engine in the car we decided to set the rockers then with the engine running. Despite two serious attempts by a mate who pretty much builds engines in his sleep, for the life of him couldn't get the rockers to set correctly. He said everything was pointing towards the lifters. Perhaps I'd reassembled them wrong or something? They were really stiff when I worked on them, they'd been sitting in the engine I pulled apart for about 2 and a half years.

Ideas appreciated.

 

Anyone with any idea, at all?

 

if you can't seem to set lash, first thought is that a lobe is gone. But i'm guessing you used a roller cam when you rebuilt the motor so...? Losing a lobe is far more rare.

try running the engine with the rocker covers off, and make sure certain rockers aren't moving at all. See if anything is "weird", it'd be obvious. Once you have the position where something isn't moving, remove the intake and remove the rocker, pushrod, and lifter for that location and see what's up.