Hey all,

This may have been asked here before but all I could find when searching was a generalized "yes or no" to using stock lifters with a cam, and another post that used a different cam.

I am about to the pull the trigger on a Vengeance Racing cam package and this will be my first cam swap. I have a pretty broad mechanical background though so this won't be my first time at digging into an engine.

My question: I want to go with the VRX4 (228/230 .588/.592 112 +4 LSA) cam but I don't want to pull the heads if I don't have to. Will the stock lifters be fine with this cam or should I go with something a bit smaller?

I'm not 100% certain on the mileage of my engine as the VIN shows 123k but the previous owner said the car got an engine swap (didn't disclose the mileage but this block is CLEAN, had the valve covers and intake off for gasket changes and everything looked brand new).

The VR package I am looking at is here: http://vengeanceracing.net/vengeance...-kit-plus.html

Options would be:
-VRX4 Cam
-Titanium retainer upgrade
-7.400" push rods

Thanks for any help with this and I apologize in advance if this is question that has been answered before! Just kindly point me to the thread so I can read up and can we let this one get buried.

Thank again!!

 

If it were me I'd do the LS7's at minimum

 

I thought ls7's basically were stock replacements?

 

They are minus the 100,000mi + of wear. Lol

Op, If you do enough research you will see cam only cars running stock lifters was no big deal back in the day because most LS1 engines were still fairly low mileage. Now days you see lifter swaps more common. If you do not know the current mileage or they have high miles then I would change them.

I went ahead and changed my lifters when I did my H/C/I swap and the motor only had 17,000mi. Did I need to, no probably not, but I wanted something that was a little better so I went with some Morels.

 

If your lifters aren't making any noise and your old cam looks fine I would just swap the cam and leave the lifters. I put my cam in on my 5.3 with 100,000 miles and I had no problems. If you take the heads off than it is a no brainer. If you decide to change lifters you might as well do heads or have yours ported since you have to go through all the work while changing lifters.

 

I reused my lifters when I did my cam 4 years ago but car only had 50k easy miles on it. Now has 64k and absolutely no issues. Reused the retainers and locks too.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys!!!

My heads are already ported thanks to the previous owner so the only reason I would pull them would be to do a head swap (or if lifters become a necessity), but I'm not really in the financial area for that at the moment sadly.

My valve train is probably one of the quietest I've heard from an LS1 (only noise is the common piston slap when cold), but I'll make sure to inspect the cam thoroughly when I pull it to try and gauge lifter life. From what I can see through the cutouts in the lifter valley, the cam looks pristine but that's only a very small area and is no definitive proof of how the internals are holding up.

Won't have the kit here until sometime mid to late next week, but I'll do more research on this and read up on stories of past swaps with stock lifters in the meantime.

Thanks for the help so far!!

 

Alright so I have decided to go ahead and upgrade the lifters to the LS7s since they're only $130 which is cheap insurance.

My next question: 7.400" or 7.425" push rods?

I know this has been touched on multiple times but there's no real definitive answer. It seems the consensus for the 228r is 7.425" rods to keep the stock preload which will keep lifter noise to a minimum. Is the 228r and the VRX4 similar enough to used the 7.425" rods? Or should I stick with stock length?

Thanks!

 

I'm running stock rockers on my setup, and they haven't given me one issue yet. Granted, my car has less than 47,000 miles though.

 

Yeah I'm going to be safe and guess mine has around 83k on it.

So due to that, I went ahead and ordered a set of "genuine" LS7 lifters. Only issue though is they have what looks like a part number stamped on the side of them: 3AU15A1X and a search of this number results in absolutely no results.

I got these off eBay from "overstocks_direct". The listing had all the correct part numbers of :12499225 HL124 and they're listed as ACDelco manufactured.

They look and feel genuine but I just can't be completely certain. Any inupt with this would be amazing.

Thanks