[Cliff R]

I started using HR camshafts back in 2004. By far and above the BEST HR lifters out there were Crane, and I believe Johnson may have made those for them. Every single other variety I ran had issues someplace, but never had one fail.

Over the years of using them I noticed that there were many changes being made to them. Plunger travel for one, and how strong the spring was under the plunger was another. Early versions had TONS of travel in them, up around .150" if memory serves me correctly. I'm certain those were early Morel. Then I noticed less and less travel in them and less problems with noise, but it always seemed I'd get one or two "tickers" in the bunch no matter who I sourced the out from except for the Crane.

Another thing I noticed was a sharp drop in power on the dyno usually right around 5800rpm's and it did NOT matter how strong the valve springs were, tried all that and zero effect on the engine going "dead" at high RPM's. This wasn't really an issue either as we were shooting for peak power with those engines around 5500-5600rpm's anyhow. My own 455 for example peaked at 5400rpm's when I went to a HR cam and I never took it much past that RPM on the street or at the track.

The Crane however revved right past 5800rpm's and didn't require a butt-ton of spring pressure either. They weren't overly popular because they were quite a bit more expensive than Comp or other companies selling them. I think at the beginning they were all selling Morel and just re-boxing them, could be wrong about that, but you'd think by now that ALL the issues with them would have been corrected no matter who's making them.......Cliff