I've had these lifters (853-16) for tens of thousands of miles now and besides a slight valve train noise (like a loose lifter adjustment) they've been fine....until this season.
I put new heads on the 350 this year. New Bee hive springs too (26918 to replace the old BeeHives) as well as a properly measured push rod. On initial fire, one lifter was clattering away. A quick check showed that the offending tappet had little or no resistance to preload and as such would just collapse under any pressure applied to the pushrod.
I replaced that lifter set (link bar style) and problem solved.
Then another two lifters started to get noisy. One has failed completely and I expect the other to follow any time soon.
To provide a temporary repair, I've adjusted the lash so as to take up almost all of the hydraulic action in the lifter and more or less lash it like a solid. About .020" at the valve tip which works out to about .012" at the lifter (1.6 ratio rocker). That works out to about 1/4 turn from totally compressing the lifter pack.
I'm very precise in my measurements for coil bind and other types of interference and there is none of that. What's more it's the same cam and lifter set that was in my Vortec headed 350 before I swapped heads.
Has any one alse had these lifter go away like this?
I've ordered a new set of Comp short travel lifters as replacements but am curious as to what other peoples experiences are.