well here's my two cents
after rebuilding my motor twice by two different engine shops
i have about 3 grand in my motor overhaul & cam ,a whole lota scrapes,bumps,curse words,thrown and or broken tools and knuckles
About 400 miles ago stock exaust lifter #8 wiped out my stock cam,cam sensor,one piston,the crank,crank sensor,my bank account and my marriage.
bought all new seals bearings,rings, oil pump ,cam from comp #54-418-11,comp lifters #850-16,comp springs #918 and comp rockers/pushrods
got motor back and life was good for about 60 miles then #4's intake lifter takes a **** all over my new motor.
trying to be as clean as possible i remove it and its bull **** ,i replace and repair, only to have #2's exaust lifter **** on me next .OK gloves are off! I rip out motor send it to a new shop because the last one claims no fault in the last build. fortunatly comp is quick to send me more lifters and a new cam in trade with my crap, nothing more nothing less all extra expences are on me GREAT! CANT WAIT! after a few extra jobs motor is back and life is good...for about 250 miles #7 exaust lifter ***** on me!.....well i've got about 150 miles on a set of 9$ each sealed power stock replacements from oreilly's,...to tell ya tha truth the look better built that the 20$ apiece comp's and aren't dirty from factory like the comps...life is once again good ..preload was always set at zero lash and half a turn or .030...all i can say is W.T.F.!... ......anyone wana sound off... ~mike~

 

well, i have close to 4k with my 850-16s and no problems. the only thing that i can think of that kills lifters like that is to much preload. thats what I know from experiance and from some researching. hopefully some more experience people can chime in on this.

Ski

 

hrmmm I've got about 3k mi on a set of 850s with a Trex and no problems yet knocks on wood

I'm running some pretty stout springs too.

 

Did you actually measure your preload, or guesstimated by turns??

Over 20K miles on 3 different cams (2 of them XE-R, .581 & .598 lifts) and still running.

I see you're running pro-magnums.
But your comment that Comps are dirty, they come with protective coating that needs to be cleaned off with mineral solvent and then they need to be soaked in oil for a couple of hours or more till they fill before installation.
If that protective coating is not removed, the lifters might stick, plug bleed down orifice and fail.
Something not right here and I seriously doubt it is those 850-16 lifters.

 

At least they don't owe you 2-grand for their own mistake...

Might be making a post of my own pretty soon.

 

It all depends on if they are set up correctly.

 

What failed on the lifters, the roller? Any photo's? Preload on lifters? How was the swipe pattern?

This could be a float issue, how high are you running this?

These springs shouldn't overload those lifters, sure sounds like another problem is occuring and the lifters are the symptom, not the cause.

 

850-16s are stock replacements...stock rocker pre-load. They are not Comp R's 875-16

You have to measure preload with adjustable rockers

You have to get the moly coat off the lifters...parts washer or the like...and then soak any roller lifter in oil before install.

I hope it wasnt operator error dude...

 

I don't know why you didn't just put them in and torque the rockers to 22lb/ft like everyone else.

 

i have been through 4 cam swaps, g5x1,x2,x3 and now x4 w/20,000k of hard driven miles on my comp 850-16 lifters. sorry to hear about your bad luck,i've had some bad times in the past,so i feel your pain bro.

 

off topic: That's kind of funny that you had the x1, x2, x3, and x4.

 

No problems yet with my 850-16's, I like these lifters because all you have to do is tighten them up to 22 ftlbs and be done with it, no crawling under the car to turn the crank and then crawling on top of the car and so on and so on to set the preload. It sucks what you had to go through,I hope you get it straighend out, Good luck.

 

yes the lifters were cleaned and soaked in oil before each install, the pre load however was determined by the engine shops and a phone call to comp, end result... zero lash and half a turn...i assume they know how to do this,they have built engins for over ten years..the damage to the lfters is the same each time...apparently roller stops turning and flattens...causing the lifter to hop or slap against the cam wereing down busting up the metal shroud around the roller tip and spitting all the bearings ...the damage to the shourd ends up mushrooming so the lifter cant be pulled out...

 

If you have non-adjstable rockers, this is NOT the correct way to do it, no matter who says it is. The preload can only be changed by using different length pushrods. The rocker bolt gets torqued to 22 ft. lbs. Tighten it till it breaks and in theory if wont push the lifter any more. All the rocker bolt does is seat the fulcrum home against the boss. Tighening it more will not compress the solid metal. However its more likely that yours are under torqued, which does nothing by leave your rockers loose and wobbling. Find a new shop, and make sure that comp know youre talking about NON adjustable rockers.

 

sounds like a bad setup. have them on my 231/237 cam and they will be there with my ms3. you need to recheck your setup and not call out comp as having junk. they make a quality product.

 

So, your not tightening them down to 22 ft lbs? Just zero lash, then half a turn?

 

holy **** thats $1800 .......lol

 

This truly sounds like an installation issue and a shop not familiar with how to set this valvetrain up correctly. I agree, find another shop to set this up.

 

I ran into a situation with Morels over the summer in a a marine application. Twin engine boat that ran the offshore circuit. He had 2 sets of morel hyd. in the boat after a freshen up and cam change.

After 3 races he developed a noise in one engine. Popped the intake off and he found a busted lifter. Morel replaced at no charge. 2 more races go buy, same engine and another noise pops up, 2 more lifters are busted. Morel inspects and finds a great degree of side loading. Sends customer 2 more pairs of lifters N/C. 2nd to the last race before the worlds. Customer tears engines down for check up, Now note the other engine had Morels and NO isses all year. After inspection the trouble free engine's lifters are in good shape, the other engine show wear on several lifters. Engine builder by chance checks lifter bores with BHJ tooling and finds that the lifter bore angle is off as much as 8 degrees on some and noted those some were the ones throwing lifters. Also found that the customer had supplied finished heads for the build and was using used Nascar springs. The "bad" engine had seat pressure of 120#. Ever turned a hyd roller BBC valvetrain at 6000 rpm for 20 minutes or so? Then to top it off the cams were profiled and found to be inverse flanks and very aggressive needing around 170# seat pressure.

So Morel got blamed because the lifter was the part that was failing but it was other things causing the lifter to fail.

Outcome, Morel designed a new link bar system for marine use that uses the tie bar material and button material that they use in their fuel lifters. Customer never offered to pay Morel for the FREE lifters.

 

Actually, Chris' post reminded me of one thing. Check the stamped number on your lifter tray. There were some that had the lifter installed at a slight angle and caused all kinds of problems. David Farmer is the unfortunate person who discovered this the hard way. The stamped number to watch for is 10.