|
By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
|
I am in the process of building a new engine for my 55 TBird. I never want to take the engine out of one of these cars again. It's not something you want to repeat. I am ready to buy a new cam. At the moment I am vacillating between an Isky E400 and one of John Mummert's cams. He has a new cam called a 1957 Plus that sounds interesting. My question is about lifters. The price of Yblock lifters is all over the board. When I call the suppliers I get vague answers about where they come from. I want the best lifters possible because I don't want to eat up a cam. I always use lots of moly lub on my cams and break them in properly. I also use the correct oil for a solid lifter cam. How can I make sure the lifters I buy will hold up?
|
|
By Cliff - 7 Years Ago
|
|
Buy the lifters where you buy the cam, that way if there is a problem you won't have a fight about what or who caused it.
|
|
By LordMrFord - 7 Years Ago
|
Trend tool steel lifters for high lift and everything else for low lift cams.
Comp lifters are cheapest and we grinded cam with those but spring pressures are super high.
I broke one cam myself with comp lifters but break in went bad.
New cam works fine with those with proper break in.
|
|
By miker - 7 Years Ago
|
I’ve bought 3 complete cam and lifter sets from J Mummert. All broke in fine and have been fine. I did have one lifter (purchased years ago) that fractured the head into 3 pieces. Found them in the oil pan. I consider that a fluke, neither that lifter nor any of the other lifter/lobes showed any wear. That motor had run for years and seen 5000 rpm many times.
I’ve also found Jonh’s descriptions of his cams to be fairly conservative, so you can rest assured they will perform as described. Listening to him, you won’t overcam the motor.
|
|
By DANIEL TINDER - 7 Years Ago
|
[quote][b]Florida_Phil (7/21/2018) I also use the correct oil for a solid lifter cam.
540ratblog makes the point that the cam & lifter failure issues (and today’s resultingly overcomplicated Y-Block break-in procedures) were largely due to confusion/myth re: what actually constitutes “correct oil”. Risking cam/lifter failure in order to speed ring break-in has proved a poor trade-off (?).
|
|
By paul2748 - 7 Years Ago
|
.I got a cam from John, an Isky (not the 400), probably the same one that he mentioned to you.. I also bought the lifters from him. The guy, an old timer with flatheads and Y's, who did the engine remarked how good they were because of the finish on the face.
|
|
By Florida_Phil - 7 Years Ago
|
Thanks for the replies. John is a nice guy. Doesn't mind talking to customers. Rare these days. Can you please tell me the correct way to break in a new engine? The engine will be in the car.
|
|
By Ted - 7 Years Ago
|
|
Florida_Phil (7/22/2018)
....Can you please tell me the correct way to break in a new engine? The engine will be in the car.
For me the key to a successful engine engine/camshaft break-in is for the engine to start up immediately without any unnecessary turning over prior to it firing up. Pre-filling the carburetor with fuel and having the initial ignition timing at 15-20° BTDC are two important factors for this to happen. Pre-checking all wiring and insuring a solid voltage supply to the coil/distributor helps here also. I do a lot of customer assisted engine break-ins on the dyno and the two biggest mistakes performed by the do it yourselfers are the distributor being installed at 180° off and the distributor itself timed for TDC rather than some realistic BTDC value.
As soon as the engine fires up, it’s desirable to bring the rpms up to 2000-2500 rpms just to insure an adequate amount of oil to be thrown up around the cam and lifters. Twenty minutes is the accepted time frame for this and is typically long enough to bring any potential engine problems to the forefront. It’s important that the cam lobes and lifters ‘burnish’ themselves during that break in process and this is more easily accomplished with the engine running at the higher rpms rather than at idle. If there are any noises coming from the engine during this period, shut it down and do some follow up.
|
|
By DANIEL TINDER - 7 Years Ago
|
|
Ted, I am a bit surprised that you recommend so much initial timing advance for first start-up? In my experience, more than 15 degrees (estimated since my dampner doesn’t have an aftermarket tape) makes the engine very hard to start (thus a common method for setting maximum advance without a light). Never owned a Model T, but didn’t antique cars usually have a collumn-mounted lever for retarding the spark (to ease starting)? Or maybe, the requirement of running the engine at higher rpm during break-in somehow dictates more total advance, and it would obviously not be practical to stop and reset the timing after first start (?). Please elaborate.
|
|
By Cliff - 7 Years Ago
|
|
I think I like the 540ratblog, web sight, a lot to read
|
|
By Hoosier Hurricane - 7 Years Ago
|
|
Daniel, we are drifting off topic a little, but model Ts had no centrifugal advance system, the steering column lever caused the driver to advance the timing to the optimum for any given driving condition. It was the only advance system they had.
|