Flat tappet lifter failure

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Doug Hoven

I understand completely. The material that camshafts were made out of 15-20 years ago seems to have been a much better material than what they are now. The camshaft I ran in my engine has had hundreds if not close to a thousand passes on it, and still looks brand new, but it was made 20+ years ago. I was fortunate to have a donation of old camshafts over this past season. A few may be of use the way they are, but at least if the lobe separation is what I want, I could always get them reground. Especially with cam prices, I’d much rather send an old cam out to get reground than have a new one done. As expensive as things are in stock, I would think that more and more would switch to a billet cam rather than a cast cam. I’m still amazed how cheap you can get an off the shelf cam from summit, competition products nowadays. For less than $200, you can get a cam and a set of flat tappet lifters(hydraulic of course). Not that you could race with one, but IMHO it’s crazy how prices can double and triple for a cast custom grind cam. There’s some users in this thread that seemed to have given up, and the only solution to make them happy would be to allow rollers. I hope that NHRA is smart enough to leave that rule alone.

So it is being said that CWC, the company that was doing cast cores, is going to severely curtail production of cast cores, if not cease it entirely. I'm sure they'll kill the "P-55" cores, the lobe lock cores, etc. None of the cam companies will invest in large enough runs to make it feasible to cast them. The current cost of labor and quality materials, and the current anti foundry climate is driving this as well.



The steel billet cores are extremely expensive. Most are intended for high lift roller cams. If you were to grind them for low lift stock applications, you'll grind through the heat treat. This will require another heat treat operation, a finish grind operation, and a polish operation. They're also not necessarily always available. There has been a serious shortage of billets for even custom rollers. I've had to wait months for cams I once got in a week.



The cost of tool steel lifters has more than quadrupled, and the wait time is measured in quarters, not weeks or months. I have been a dealer almost since they were first released.


There is no quick, simple solution, especially since most of the camshaft companies have been bought by "private equity" corporations, who have zero interest in any custom work. They want only "A" and "B" movers that they can move, mostly through big box stores, for a consistent fairly large margin. The same applies to most suppliers of flat tappets.


Still, merely switching to roller lifters is not the solution that the uninitiated think it is, nor what the people on that round table think it is.