Flat tappet lifters, Are new ones any good?? Lets find out

We Inspect And Regrind A couple sets of new hyd flat tappet lifters and talk about the many problems that plague the cam industry

[someonehasthisid]

I miss the days of general low buck hot rodding where you could buy a 50 dollar cam and a cheap set of 25 dollar lifters and it broke in and worked fine.

[joeshumo]

Worked as a high performance automotive machinist since I could hold a wrench.
We checked and machined everything to the 9th degree, every time, all the time.
Stuff was crap back then as well. Even from the big names. There was a sweet spot where manufacturing was pretty damn good overall and has been slipping again ever since.
I trust nothing out of the box.
Thanks for making a straight forward video about this topic that has had way too much drama and speculation surrounding it. Guys were wiping out cams all the time back in the day, so it’s not some new thing.
It was almost universally blamed on improper break in and more than half the damn time it was and still is.
But I’ve always found most parts to be lacking straight out of the box.

[deanmoser]

All I can say is thanks. After all the failures and opinions you are the only person to show what the true issues are.

[BigFunLife]

Thanks for doing these videos.It’s so sad how bad the quality control is these days.And all the offshore junk that’s coming into the country..

[edsmachine]

Great video Daniel.
You and people like us are exposing these parts suppliers for what they are.
Lifters and cams were made in this country for years and minimal problems.
Had more problems in the last 2 to 3 years.
Thanks for sharing and the great video.
Take care, Ed.

[alanmize]

have been reading ever car mag since 1960 every tech article . I learn more here in 12 minutes than any mag articles ever. and I read well thanks.

[Mike]

Old guys like me learned this way back in the day.
Thank you for explaining so everyone can understand that there is problems causing failures.
Lifter bores are so bad in the old 60-70’s blocks glad you pointed it out.
Maybe people who want engines built NOW will understand WHY it costs good $$$$ for a well built engine. This includes having a block degreased, bored and honed.
Cam tunnels and lifter bores must be checked for roller camshafts too!

[testpilot]

It seems as the old engineers of various companies get retired off, certain details are lost in the rush to modernise the product, thanks for the clear & concise explanation .

[zakpeterson]

Best video on what is going on with wiping cams. What you described makes more sense than any of the other hairball ideas ive heard.

[ercost]

FANTASTIC SLEUTHING! Love this great info, there is no shortage of videos with opinions and misinformation but this and your cam videos are the first to scientifically test the parts and identify the real problems. Excellent presentation and content, you're making SC proud... I'm originally from Charleston.

[frozenstang]

Every car guy needs to see this video. The quality of aftermarket parts is going to hell and no one says a word.

[rickwarda]

It’s not really a taper it’s more of a “dome”. It’s supposed to be a flat tapped lifter lol. Made thousands for racing and everyone wanted a domed lifter but we would polish them to remove grinding marks! Corners should have a controlled radius and very small. This guy knows what he’s talking about.

[Pork-Chopper]

I bought complete Comp Cams n lifter kits with the reduced ratio roller rockers, lifters, timing gears n chains for my small block n big block Chevy
Motors n both motors have been running for awhile now. Close to 20k miles on the small block n about 10k on the big block. They both were mild cams with moderate lifts 456 n 460.
I have not had any issues whatsoever. One thing though. I had done all this before covid hit the fan. After COVID, I noticed that many engine builders were complaining about bad cams n lifters being purchased from reputable companies. Long story short, our US companies were now outsourcing the manufacturing to offshore companies, yep, Chinese companies n others. Seems during/after covid many of our US companies closed and/or laid off employees due to the Pandemic. I believe that because of that, our companies lost a quality workforce that "knew" what they were doing when it came to manufacturing these components for our market. Seems everything went to shit after covid, and frankly the new millennial workforce don't know Jack about quality or work ethics or anything about the American Pride us old-timers knew n respected.
Seems now we're just throwing the dice
on what we get. It's a sad state of affairs n we are the ones paying for it!

[jimmywaters]

Wow ! This is what I call real “meat and potatoes” information ! The way you presented this info was on point ! This makes me consider wanting to send y’all my “very big name” lifters to y’all for inspection / remachining. I suspect hardness testing as well as measuring lifter taper could potentially save me a few hundred dollars ! I will also have my block’s lifter bores machined for correct location and correct plane or axis of operation. Not checking these things has got us to where we are now, I realize. Thank you so much for this video !

[kennethreiver]

Thank You for the comprehensive explanation . This is one of the unfortunate results of poor quality control and outsourcing components . The little things can ruin an entire engine .

[bobadingo]

Never ever had problems until synthetic oils hit the market!!.. .

[davidanderson]

Finally a more defined answer to why we hear of so many flat tappet cam issues.

[joejohnson]

Thanks for taking the time to explain the lobe taper to lifter crown angle relationship. Learned something to add to my knowledge base!

[ryno]

Very interesting,
I’m a retired toolmaker and hotroder, very good information, great videos

[edbeck]

There is a lot of videos and theories about the cause of this problem.
Rebuilt lifters, wrong break in oil.
But this is living proof.