I recently picked up some AI 226cc 243 heads to put onto my LS1. Unfortunately, my engine had other plans.

The Friday morning before the weekend I had scheduled to install my new heads, my engine started ticking. I didn't think too much about it until I got to work, about 5 minutes away from my house. The light ticking had developed into a much louder tick, so as soon as I got to work I shut it off. I pulled the valve covers, and found there was a bunch of play in the number 5 exhaust rocker. Figured I had a collapsed lifter, so I started to tear it apart. I was half right.




I actually had to pull the cam and remove the damaged lifter from the bottom as the lifter body had flared out. It had wiped the lobe of the cam, so I ended up having to buy a new one. From the looks of the still intact lifter, I am assuming the pin holding the roller worked itself loose and then all hell broke loose. I spent about 5 hours fishing all the metal bits out of my engine and oil pan, and flushed a few litres of oil through the pan to get most of the leftover residue out. I made sure to get all 18 needle bearings out.

Now, my question is why did this happen? My engine has about 75 000 miles. Been cammed for about 10 000 miles. Figured lifters would last longer than that, even if they were stock. The way the pin that holds the roller in actually looks pretty crappily designed. Seems to me that they just use a hollow punch or something similar to deform the ends of the pin so it stays in. Too bad they don't use internal snap rings or something similar to provide a positive lock. Do lifters like that actually exist? If so, next time my heads are off I will definitely switch to that style of lifter.

Also, I have not started up the engine yet as I am waiting for some 7.325" pushrods. I am planning on warming up the engine, and then doing an oil and filter change right away. How likely is it that the metal will find its way to the bearings and take out my engine? The cam bearings looked ok, but I am more worried about taking out the bottom end. I don't plan on beating on the engine until I flush it out a few times. I'm thinking change it every 100 miles until there are no more metal flakes in my oil filter or on the drain plug.

 

Been there quite a few times man. Go with Morel or Lunati link bar lifters and I would pull the motor and have the block flushed out. Definately replace the oil pump also. Oil galleys and oil pump could have shavings in them. Either way I would take the short block to a machine shop to have them take a look. Don't wanna forget to mic the lifter bore if you had one of the lifters flare out.

More or less to save money in the long run do it right this time and take all precaution - I made this mistake twice.

 

what cam were you running? or what lobes? have you had your valve springs tested to see if they were in spec?

 

What oil was being used? You can't use the so called new car engine oil when stiffer springs & faster cam lobes are used.

Look at Joe Gibbs, VR1 Vavoline or similar performance engine oil.

Russ Kemp

 

I had that happen to me with a set of LS7 lifters with only 1500 miles on them. Do the lunati or morel link bar lifters and use a good quality oil with high ZZDP content.

I am seeing a ton of lifter failures lately. A lot of people say its from the new emission regulated oils on the market.

 

Hard to say IMHO....Tons of people have run OEM LS1 and LS7 lifters with no issues. You could have had an oiling issue, a spun lifter, or simply just a failure. I don't think high zinc oil would have prevented that. I think aftermarket lifters get too much credit. Lifters are very basic in design....any lifter could fail or be prone to failure from an external factor.

 

Zinc helps over a period of time. And I think oil plays a huge roll in lifter failure.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-in...on-anyone.html

 

Been using Pennzoil Platinum. Old cam was a Thunder Racing Trutorq Level 2, 223/230 .612 .608 116 LSA. No idea about lobes, they didnt include a cam card. Springs were changed with the cam so I have no idea if they are in spec or not. They were new so I assume they would be fine. Comp 926 dual valve springs.

Pushrods should be here tomorrow so I will find out then if I did any permanent damage. If so I guess I am heading to the wreckers for an LQ9 to swap all my stuff over to.

 

Yea...for flat tappet lifters, not so much for roller.

 

brian tooley recommends zinc additives too and he knows his stuff...

 

Aftermarket lifters most definately are not overrated. Higher end link bar lifters have better valving, thicker lifter body/frame, and an increased contact area on the roller. Just saying... These types of lifters are designed to take a lot of abuse over an extended period of time in some applications.

They way I look at it, spend $500 now on nice components or spend $1200+ later getting your short block rebuilt.

 

So your saying Zinc and Phos levels don't matter because of the roller design? Maybe you should read that thread a little closer...it's not just happening to the C3 crowd, but to LS engines across the board.

 

I collapsed (actually it looked nearly identical to yours) about 10,000 miles ago. Replaced with LS7, stock trays, and did a cam at that time. Been fine so far and I run whichever 10W-30 syn that's on sale.

Allen

 

^this^

 

We've seen 4 lifter failures within the last year, none for the other 8 years before.

Looks like it has to do with the oil. Zinc is being taken out of most oils.

 

Thats the problem. Most people assume everything is fine until it snaps and then they look back and say "well gee guess I shouldve invested $5 for an additive every 5000 miles instead of valve, rollers breaking and causing this huge failure. "


If you arent actually checking, you dont know

 

Look at the guys lifter...Can we really say its because of the lack of zinc?? That roll pin is hanging out.

 

no, but zinc is no doubt a small aid that may help cut down on failures in the valvetrain.

 

What rpm were you shifting at? what was your oil level? any overrrevs? Which oil filter do you use? what weight oil?

 

This is great info. With that said, what oil(s) should I look to run after my heads/cam install?