I just thought I would throw this out. I recently rebuilt a 302 Ford eng. for my old truck. Did it all right. stripped down to the bare bones,cleaned, checked , did machine work. rechecked. installed new cam brgs,cam, ENGINE TECH brand lifters, rod brg,s ,mains, forged pistons, ss rings, assembled,lapped,gapped, ect. with special cam lube on the cam and lifters. :Brow: Fired it up and did the approved break in procedure. Drove it 1000 mi. changed oil and filter. All was well. :laugh: At 1500 mi. I heard a rocker arm clicking. a day or two later I pulled the rocker arm cover to "tighten the backed off rocker arm," It was still tight, and I noticed that the rocker was oiling good but only moving about half the amount that the others was moving. :Brow: I pulled the "collapsed"lifter out and found about 1/4 in. chewed off the bottom of it. :rant: Cam gone!!!! I reflected in my mind what could have caused this. I had done all the things that was supposed to be done. All the other lifters were good. Suspicious I examined the lifter. It had been turning in the bore. the push rod, rocker arm,and stand was good. I took the lifter to the steel company where my wife works and did a rockwell hardness test on it. IT TESTED 39.2!!!!!! This is the same as cold rolled steel. I tested the lifter beside and it tested 53.9. Beware of ENGINE TECH products. It is a bummer to really do a job right and then lose an engine because the parts were defective. :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: :af:
That sucks! The quality of things today makes me wanna puke........tou should document everything and make them pay for their screw up. That lifter was never hardened, they call that quality control? :spank:
lifter That is exactly what I am doing. I remember when we would just start up a new eng. and let it idle till it warmed up. We never heard of a cam being wiped out. now you have to go thru all this proceedure. I think that cams are being lost because of soft lifters or soft cams. not anything the mechanic does or does not do. :Smarty:
WTF is "Engine Tech"? Am I really really out of the game? Or is that some parts store name brand? I gathered my 350H parts so long ago I still have Rhodes "tickers" new in the box. Now if I only had the resources to complete that car. And that darn 455 tempting me from on the shelf. Oh well, family first, I'll get greasy once my boys are old enough to help. Tom
Engine tech Actually, I have no idea who these people are. o No: I just told the machine shop owner that I wanted a good kit that had all the good stuff in it, TRW,MELLING,CLEVITE 77 BRGS, AND A COMPITETION CAMS cam,ect., not wild just a rv/pulling cam. These ENGINE TECH lifters came in the kit. They looked good,and my machinist said he used them all the time. So I went ahead and used them. I wont again. :rant: Next time I will hand them back and get TRW,SEALED POWER, PERFECT CIRCLE or whatever besides Engine tech. I have returned the defective parts and am waiting to see what they do about it. Of course I still have all that extra work to do. :af:
bad lifters Doc, I heard that there are only a few places that either make or harden lifters for all the different companies. The guy who does my engine machining was telling me in the fall that he was having all sorts of trouble with hydraulic lifters in moderate street engines. He had sort of the same story, not hard enough or not hardened deep enough. He lost 3-4 motors last year because of this. He swapped some of them over to solid cams just to get the customers motors back to them, I guess there was a 'new' batch in the process but not availible right then. Crane Cams had a batch of soft cams about 10 years ago, the cams would not even make it through the break in procedure. I have the same luck, I spend the money on 'good' parts, take my time and do it right... something stupid sets me back 10 paces. I should tell you about how the rebuild for my wife's Suburban went........
lifter problems There is more to this story ; Yesterday I called comp cams because it had been 5 working days and I had not heard from them. In the conversation with thier warranty dept. the discussion got out of hand when I was told " not to be so hard headed" :Brow: That was just before the guy learned about a mad coon ass. :rant: I gave him a railroad chewing out!!!!! :rant: When I got thru to him he agreed to send me another cam. However, I am not finished yet. I think it was just him talking and not the company. I intend to email the customer ralations manager AFTER I get the new cam in my hot little hand. p I am not sure which part went bad first the lifter or the cam but its like i told them, the cam should work with any hydrolic lifter that i put on it. the eng is bone stock except for the cam,and was just driven daily not drag raced. It was getting plenty of oil up to the rockers. I saw no reason for it to fail. The lifter rockwelled at 39 which I would have never known except I had access to a rockwell tester where the wife works. You can bet that I will rockwell test every lifter and the cam before I put it in again. :Smarty:
I heard that too. What worries me is around that time I rebuilt my motor.....I'm afraid of what I might see if look under the valley pan uzzled: ou:
Nailheadina67-If you haven't heard it by now, you are ok.When a cam or lifter goes bad lke that you know real quick. Doc, I think your troubles on the phone are just the schlep on the other end. I think Comp Cams has been trying to be a more consumer friendly company over the last few years. They are trying to compete with all the older "big" brands like Crane, Isky, etc... It sucks when you call for assistance/technical or otherwise and get some flunky who knows little about what they sell/manufacture. It may be partially because the get so many phone calls from guys rebuilding engines in their childrens sand box using beer induced expertise and then claiming parts failure. You would think the guy on their end would be able to differentiate someone who knows what they are doing and someone who knows everything. You should tell them they should be thankful you are not asking them to pay for the rest of the rebuild.
I never had a good discussion with the Comp Cams folks in the last 20 years. The tech people act like they are doing you a favor talking to you. I use Engle Cams - Great people and great support.
comp cams I understand, I still as of this date have not received another cam from them. My machine shop told me to come by and he gave me my money back for the cam and the lifters, plus he gave me all the new gaskets to do the repair and some arp molly grease for lubing my new sealed power cam and lifters. I am getting the truck back together, no thanks to comp cams. I dont think they will have any more of my money crossing thier counter at comp cams, ever. Like I always say , rookie do me once shame on you, rookie do me twice shame on me.
in my engine rebuilding class at school we ordered gasket sets for our 350s and everone of our engines head gaskets failed! 5 out of 5 engines had the oil pan filled with water by the time we were done adjusting the valves. i will never purchase an ENGINE TECH product! how do 5 out of 5 sets of gaskets fail?!?!? crappy products thats how
