Extremely noisy lifters after cam swap (new LS7 lifters) 2008 SSV

[MrPtnt]

My lifters are crow cams LS7 lifters. I have read that LS7 lifters are slightly longer than the original L98 lifters, but I didnt compare with my original lifters.

 

[Pollushon]

They are longer but the extra plunger travel negates it over LS1 type. That's why they're a direct replacement

 

[MrPtnt]

Well, lifting the heads confirmed that one lifter is broken (and stuck in the bore), and a couple of others are damaged (the rollers look horrid). Others still look brand new.

IMG_20180425_165604

• MrPtnt
• Apr 25, 2018

My stuffed lifters...

The damaged one is still facing the right direction (in the bore), but appears to have the entire roller wiped off.

Now that you have seen the damage, what would you think would cause this?

 

[Pollushon]

That's a bummer mate. Most likely cause is those lifters are too tight in the bore. One got stuck and two got hammered by a cam lobe. Takes a lot of pressure to do that sort of damage. How's the cam look?

If it was preload related you'd have a bent rod. Do they all roll nice on a flat surface?

 

[MrPtnt]

The lobes corresponding to the lifters with visible damage are clearly worn. The others lobes (and their corresponding lifters) look brand new.

I would just love to have an idea what caused this so that I dont make the same mistake again. The lifters were snug in their bore, but that is what I was expecting.

Also, the oil pressure was still good at the pressure sensor, even after the lifters were stuck/damaged. And the engine ran surprisingly well for 4-5 or 8 cylinders...

Anyway, I have found a replacement engine (these engines are expensive!) that I will put in, and I will pull apart the old one and rebuild it from scratch (as metal has been going through the engine).

 

[delcowizzid]

Cams gonna be rooted and the lifter bore with the stuck one and thetes gonna be metal filings all through it thats bad damage for a short amount of time.just about everything you bought is junked the springs breaking wasn't a good start and it must of had too much lift and coil bound the springs one of the supplied components was wrongly packaged or it does have mace high ratio rockers on it (they look stock) and the cam lift was too much

 

[Pollushon]

Even when the lifters are snug in the bore you should hand spin the crank/cam to make sure that applies to the travel range. If it's not a perfect fit including travel the lifter can skew and stick in the bore under pressure.

I tend to agree with delco but the unusual bit is that pushrods are the weak point in the valvetrain equation and should have visibly bent well before you killed a roller.

Best prevention moving forward is measure all of your tolerances twice before firing her up. Measure everything not just samples. I have three varying sizes of pushrod in mine because I wanted perfection for boost. Also lots of hand cranking to identify anomalies helps too.