adjusting roller rockers and one of them is hitting the valve cover

I can't really tell from the blurry pics.. but if that lifter has any polish on it?.. the cam was wiped long ago and had reseated its lobe onto the lifter again.

If that's the case?.. then you can easily swap to another pushrod that better fills that extra clearance requirement.. or order a custom length unit to button it back up for the time being until you can get another motor built to take its place.

I've seen.. and even driven on ocassion.. many motors with wiped lobes through the years and they can go for quite some time before total failure occurs. Some never even totally fail and the motor breakes due to other issues non-related to the wiped lobes. Sure doesn't help efficiency.. but they keep on clattering away for many miles beyond where you'd think they would.

 

I took some more pictures here...

 

it looks polished to me and I never felt and power loss as well..im guessing thats why the poly loc was fully out but still on tight as well too...any clue on knowing how much of difference I need to find for the pushrod?

 

You want the tip of the rocker centered on the valve stem... If pushrod is too short, rocker tip will pulled back toward the push rod and away(hang over so to speak) if it's too long...


As far as no movement with new lifter installed, needs to have air bled out... If you have a squirt type oil can, pump as much oil in it as yo can to stop it from collapsing when the pressure of rocker and spring are on it...

 

See if the lifter rises the same as the others. If not, the cam is done!

 

Place a straight edge across the face of the lifter, if there's daylight under the edge, the lifter and the cam lobe are toast. If the straight edge can be rocked across the lifter, the lifter should be OK. Usually when a single lifter and lobe go, it's the result of a poorly machined lifter that caused the problem. Also the lifter should spin freely in it's bore, if it does not, then it'lll wipe the cam lobe in a short period of time (20 minutes during the break-in is all it takes to kill a lobe and lifter) The pushrod should only be able to be spun when the cam lobe is on the base circle (valve closed) once the adjustment is made.

 

You'll need to mock the original one in place and use a feeler guage to get close to the geometry that Krazy Comet already mentioned above while being sure to add the amount the pushrods ball end would normally sink into the pushrod cup of the rocker arm(using a flat feeler obviously restrictes the end from seating into that cup so you have to compensate.. likely needing to add another .050 to whatever measurment corrects the geometry).

Getting even close to the proper geometry should be enough to milk that cam/motor for the few more months you're looking to get from it. I will warn you though.. if you replace that lobe matched lifter as mentioned above?.. you will only make matters much worse as the new one tries to run in on that particular lobe. Of course baddad is correct about the lifter needing to be able to rotate freely though.. and minor relief work with 1200-1500 grit wet sandpaper would likely buy you more time with any sticky ones you may have.

In my opinion.. any way you go short of completely replacing both the cam and lifters is just going to be a bandaid approach to buy you some time. Good luck with it.

 

In my opinion.. any way you go short of completely replacing both the cam and lifters is just going to be a bandaid approach to buy you some time. Good luck with it.[/QUOTE]

thats exactly what I was thinking to myself all day today so I decided just to get another cam and lifter kit (summit brand) just so I wont have to worry about it in the long run just in case I do decide to keep the engine inside it longer than I said I will.

Thanks alot everyone for yalls input and helping me figure my lifter problem

 

When you get the cam and lifters in, take a close look at every lifter, especially the bottom face, they should all be machined uniformly and have a slight convex (domed)face. If any one looks suspicious, send it back. do not attempt to use it. Flat tappet lifters will rotate in service, this prevents premature wear to both the lifter and cam lobe, when you fire it up to break in the cam, do it without the valve covers on, so that you can watch the pushrods to verify that they're spinning, if any one does not spin, then kill the engine immediately and determine why that lifter and pushrod isn't spinning. Too much lube on the lifter face can also prevent the lifter from being rotated by the cam lobe, as can too much of a thick lubricant on it's sides. As for continuing to run the damaged cam and lifter, that's a crap shoot as you're taking the chance of feeding metal filings into the engine and oiling system.

 

just got the cam in earlier today..nothing fancy small lift 471. 471. sum-3601 hopefully itll be decent for now till I start doing my next build

 

First post I saw I figured flat cam...Sick feeling... Make sure you use a good oil (Valvoline Racing) that has ZINC in it, and buy a bottle of Comp Cams break in lube (more zinc) Todays oil does not have zinc in it due to roller lifters are in everything new. Zinc is critical to our flat tappet cams surviving. Do a search if you don't believe me, plus you will learn a lot. I run 10/40 VR in mine, and I'm still worried, kill one cam and you never forget it. My Maverick has a late model roller motor, and I'm going to put a solid roller in the 460 in the Mustang, even though I don't need it, I hate worrying bout flat cams...

 

All of today's API SM/SN oils still have zinc, it's just been reduced to approx 2/3(roughly 750 PPM) of the figure of previous SH/SJ/SL oils... As for zinc additives they can't hurt but the old saying "if some is good and more is better, then too much is just right" does not apply... After approx 1500 PPM more zinc has zero effect... No I wouldn't want to break in a new cam on a SM/SN oil but all the gloom & doom on the net has mostly been perpetuated by the oil suppliers with a agenda to sell more of their product...


PDS for VR1, their 5/10W-30 oils have 1100 PPM while the 20W-50 has 1400...

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/vr1_synthetic.pdf

BTW Mobil 1 0W-40 also has 1100 or the same amount as the 5/10W-30 VR1...

 

i had bought a bottle of the howards cams break in lube http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hrs-99000/overview/

Ill probably go with the 20w-50 vr oil too

 

finally go the car going and got it idling correctly. NOW my clutch pedal is very hard to press in...It was working perfectly fine before I got the cam swapped out now its very stiff and when I look inside the clutch fork hole it looks like the bearing is still pressed inside the clutch forks..I hammered the clutch fork a couple of times and I was able to press it but very hard still and the bearing still looks jammed inside there..any clues on this one now??

 

If it is stuck in there, you're going to need to pull the transmission out and see why it is, then go from there to fix it. If it was stuck, then there would be a ton of slack in the clutch linkage because of it. Another thing to examine is the condition of all the clutch linkage bushings at every point, and wear in the pedal support, those bushings do not last forever, once they do wear out, the pedal shaft will wear into the support bushing (pot metal bushings the shaft and nylon bushings ride in) And then there can be flexing in the Z bar when you use a stiffer than stock pressure plate. I went thru all this back in the 80's with my old 67 big block fastback Stang, all those parts were worn out then, with the car only 15 years old. Imagine what you'll find in a 40 year old car.