Ok..long story short is that im active duty military and cirrently out of state for 2 months. I have a shop installing my tristar 406 dart shp motor. Upon inspection i was informed the lifters are hard to get in and it is taking about 50 ft/lbs to turn and around 45 ft/lbs to keep it turning. Oh and TriStar says i have to pay shipping back to them for them to inspect it. Has anybody ever had a bad experience with TriStar or is this normal? I have had nothing but bad luck with this car and thought a new engine would help....apparently i was wrong again.

 

Nobody huh?

 

Any details on how the rotation test is being done? Plugs in or out? Rockers lashed and operating the springs?
Can't comment on it being "hard to get the lifters in". Unless there's a mismatch somewhere. Need details on that too.

 

Dart blocks should have had the lifter bores honed to lifter spec. Some lifters may run smaller or larger than typical gm spec so lifter bore clearance greatly varies.

who knows what tristar did. As far as rotational torque that can depend on alot of things, piston to wall clearance, ring package/tension, bearing clearances, etc.

 

I don't know anything about TriStar engines; nothing good and nothing bad, so I have no helpful advice there. If they have a warranty issue, they may handle it for you, but I do agree that it does stink to have to pay shipping/freight.

Have you contacted DART with all the specs of the lifters and see what they say? As skinny and orr are very knowledgeable on engine components, I would hear them out a bit.

I'll keep following along; and I wrote back to your PM too. Feel free to reach out if ya need to