[goat2789]

Had some valve train noise so decided to investigate. Does anyone know what might cause this? It’s been installed and running strong since 2012. Has good oil pressure . I know the cam is shot but how about the lifters?

[tom s]

Can you show the lifter that was next to it from the side and bottom?Tom

[goat2789]

Is this what you need?

[goat2789]

Side shot

[tom s]

Johnson lifters.Tom

[goat2789]

Comp 857-16
Smith brothers 9.100 pushrods
PRW 1.65 roller rockers

[tom s]

Johnson made theComp back then.Tom

[tom s]

Did the roller lock up or loose needle bearing?

[goat2789]

All look and roll fine. Just that line on some of the rollers but you can’t feel it

[tom s]

Looks like something dug into that cam lobe?Tom

[P@blo]

How many miles did the cam/lifter see? Sorry to hear of your troubles but at least you caught it early.

It suprises me when PY members still deny there are issues with the retrofit link- bar lifters and roller cams in a Pontiac. Apparently only on the internet do these problems exist yet threads like thus are more common than HFT failures now.

Imagine if we all ran link-bar retrofit lifters the forum would need to open a new section for all the failure threads. Couple this with the fact most do not see daily driver mileage either so the magic bullet is not so...

[steve25]

How much does that lifter wabble in that bore as compared to the other lifters?

That lobe can be welded up and reground.

[chuckies76ta]

Sorry for your troubles. Not to sound rude, but get ALL those little pieces of debris out of the valley area. I have a brand new set of Crower solid roller lifters if your interested. Part # 66260H-16.

[Formulajones]

Going to need further investigation but first impression is that it's not a roller lifter failure based off what you've said and the pics provided. I agree with Tom looks like something just got in there and got a couple cam lobes.

How do those PRW rockers look? Missing any needle bearings? Fulcrums have play? Loose pins? Pushrod ends okay?

[Steve C.]

Often you can see but not feel a normal wear pattern on roller lobes, especially after mileage. However that is different than a 'scoring' into the lobe with damage.

For interest check the spring pressure at their actual verified installed height using a calibrated bench spring tester.


.

[i82much]

Originally Posted by P@blo

How many miles did the cam/lifter see? Sorry to hear of your troubles but at least you caught it early.

It suprises me when PY members still deny there are issues with the retrofit link- bar lifters and roller cams in a Pontiac. Apparently only on the internet do these problems exist yet threads like thus are more common than HFT failures now.

Imagine if we all ran link-bar retrofit lifters the forum would need to open a new section for all the failure threads. Couple this with the fact most do not see daily driver mileage either so the magic bullet is not so...

we could also open up sections for flat tappet and solid roller failures. you pick your poison and hope for the best. i have about 2500 miles on a retrofit hyd roller with no failures, and i will keep going until i do. this was after a solid flat tappet and solid roller both failed.

i personally suspect the flat tappet and solid roller failures i experienced were builder issues rather than bad parts, so not badmouthing either. but i have had more luck with retrofit hydraulic roller than i did with solid flat tappet or solid roller.

if i lose a lifter and it doesn’t take out anything else, i’ll probably try the solid roller lifter on hyd roller cam deal. or maybe i’ll drive another 100k miles on my hyd roller lifters without a failure, or maybe try the new comp hyd roller lifters. i dunno.

[tom s]

IMO,there was no cam or lifter "failure".Looks like something got loose in the engine and caused some cam damage.9 years of use on HiPo equipment sounds pretty darn good to me.Tom

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by i82much

we could also open up sections for flat tappet and solid roller failures. you pick your poison and hope for the best. i have about 2500 miles on a retrofit hyd roller with no failures, and i will keep going until i do. this was after a solid flat tappet and solid roller both failed.

.

Yep
Anything can fail at any point. Just because it's a roller doesn't mean it's more prone to it. The problem is that only failures are reported on the internet, not the 100's of thousands of success stories. So the win or lose scale on the internet is a bit skewed. To top that off we almost never hear the end result as to why the failure. Many times it's as you said, something else at fault is the cause.

I've had a retrofit hydraulic roller with those Johnson lifters in my BBC for a little over 20 years now and haven't had a need to touch it. Can't count how many engines I've built with them that are still running today and thousands of miles. But many people sure don't miss an opportunity to tell you when they have a problem.

I've mentioned before we've had a solid roller failure. Never had a hydraulic roller failure or a flat tappet failure. Does that mean now that solid rollers are bad? Of course not. There are too many things at play.

It'll take some time to get to the root cause of this one.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by tom s

IMO,there was no cam or lifter "failure".Looks like something got loose in the engine and caused some cam damage.9 years of use on HiPo equipment sounds pretty darn good to me.Tom

Agree, that's what it appears like

[Lee]

Sorry if I missed it, but did you check the spring(s) for that lobe?

I know of one Pontiac that had cam/lifter failure recently, and it was because of insufficient spring pressure.