Question on LS1 lifter life span in my application
Question on LS1 lifter life span in my application While researching part longevity I ran across some worrysome threads on lifter life in modified engines. After spending all evening trying to find out if I should be worried about my lifters I must resort to asking the collective minds here. I have listed all mods and the specs of my cam in my sig. The car has 119,000 miles on it with the original lifters and trays and 30k of that is with the listed cam and valvetrain. The motor sounds and runs just fine. I'm just paranoid now. Should I be worrying about replacing/upgrading them soon?
I would undoubtably do a head swap at the same time but I don't really have the budget for that just yet and would like to push it off for a while still if I can safely get away with it.
I would undoubtably do a head swap at the same time but I don't really have the budget for that just yet and would like to push it off for a while still if I can safely get away with it.
TECH Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 14,620
Likes: 17
From: BFE
Well stock lifter were not designed to handle the kind of lifts a lot of us throw at them. They are good pieces but everything has a limit.
The snag is one has to remove heads to change lifters.
The snag is one has to remove heads to change lifters.
I would do it as soon as you can. I waited a bit too long and the bad lifter made a nice groove in my cam. Had to get a new oil pump and new cam which were added expenses on top of the gaskets, bolts, heads (one of the valve stems was ground down) and rockers. Did manage to pick up a used set of 243 heads though 
Car should be done this week. I'll try to post more pics.
Car should be done this week. I'll try to post more pics.
So the consensus is that I'm flirting with the devil by not replacing them yet? I suppose some cleaned up 243/799 heads would be cheaper than replacing good parts for no reason.
