I finally got my engine back from the machine shop and now it's time to build. One concern that I have is reusing my old roller lifters. I know that you can reuse roller lifters but the ones that I have, have about 100,000 miles on them. I cleaned them up real good on the outside. Some of the lifters seem to bind a little when I roll them slowly on a flat surface but if I roll them quickly they don't bind, is this normal? Should I get new lifters, and if I do get new lifters are the summit brand trustworthy?

Put a drop of oil on the roller trunnion, maybe dip them in a ½" of it in a can or something. If that frees them up they're probably OK.

Normally I'd say clean and reuse gm lifters but if the rollers have an issue then I'd replace. Don't cheap out on lifters ever. Too often just costs an engine in the end.
cheapest I'd go are Howards. Made in Wisconsin.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/h...xoC168QAvD_BwE

I've been letting them soak in oil for about 3 months since I've been waiting for my machine shop. I will check them tomorrow.

If they're already oiled, and they don't roll smooth, replace them.

I forgot to mention that the engine ran perfect when it was in the car. I didn't have any lifter tick or stuck lifters.

That may well be true. Nobody is saying they were already defective beforehand. After all, that's why we check things at teardown that weren't already known bad; to find out if there's anything we haven't spotted yet. And of course, rollers with bad bearings, don't necessarily tick or "stick".

OTOH, do you want to deal with what happens when a lifter fails, in your brand-new project?

Some risks aren't worth the rewards, or even, the cost of avoidance. Lifters are in that class of things.

Exactly...with my 383 I'm building, my old roller lifters seemed ok, but I'm not about to risk thousands of dollars to save 350 bucks...

I bought a new set.

A new set of GM lifters from Summit costs about that much.

I'd replace them; IMO, it's just not a good idea to re-use high-mileage valve train components when building a new engine.


Depends on who makes them; ask Summit. I'd stay away from anything made off-shore.

I'd say I'm in the replacement camp.
Sometimes there's very little evidence that something is going sideways.









Not the OEM variety but rather a very expensive set of COMPs short travel lifters.
Despite the destruction, the engine ran surprisingly well. I'd be truly choked if I re-installed these in a fresh short block only to fill it full of metal. The cam lobe is equally FUBARed.

EDIT: From a quality standpoint, these lifters are about 20 years old. At that time my understanding was that were entirely manufactured in the U.S. Now that COMP has been sold off, the operations have become "global". Now you don't what the hell you're getting.
I'll probably source my replacement parts from Jones Cams. Mike Jones says that they only sell American made parts. So I'm in.