Flat tappet lifter failure

[Terry Cain]

Originally Posted by Doug Hoven

Well that sounds like a logical chain of events to me.... Did you try something different all three times, or did the same thing over and over again expecting different results? I've always been an advocate of running as little valve spring pressure needed to avoid valve float at the peak rpm your engine is going to see. I'm not trying to get up on a soap box and tell you how to build your engine. I build my own stuff, and it's slow, but I'm working on it. I am trying a new, well new to me, camshaft this season. With any luck all of my talk on here won't cause my cam to flatten on startup. I've had good luck with Clay Smith lifters on the handful of flat tappet engines I've built.

Each was different. Let's just say I've learned and paid dearly because of it. lol
BUT prob won't be messing with a heavy valve flat tappet motor the rest of my lifetime. To me, it makes no since to try when the materials and manufacturing we are getting are just not what they use to be.