[Granny 67]

I lost an intake lobe on a crane solid flat tappet. The cam was used. The lifters and lobes all appeared to be in good condition. I bought a new set of Howards direct lube solid lifters, small hole in lifter face for added oil. Filled the motor with some Rotella T and primed it. Ran the break in at 2500 for 20 min. I have done this same proceedure on several solid flat tappets before without issue. I have had this motor running for about a year. Very few miles and 20 track passes. I pulled the intake and removed the lifter and its nasty!

The springs have 132# on the seat and 280# open. I did not remove the inner spring.

What should I different on the next cam install?

 

[Vin63]

Hey Scott. You more than likely didn't do anything wrong. It just might have been a material flaw (something in the casting or nitriding, etc.) that reared its ugly head at that particular moment. Especially if it was just that one lobe.

 

[procharged67]

is it possable you had that rocker too tight? it was a used cam maybe it was just time to fail??

eather way clean everything up and start new with a new cam.these things just happen.

 

[OldGuy 71Acadian]

When you can't explain something it's usually PFM.:devil:

 

[Granny 67]

Hey Scott. You more than likely didn't do anything wrong. It just might have been a material flaw (something in the casting or nitriding, etc.) that reared its ugly head at that particular moment. Especially if it was just that one lobe.

Good morning. You are up early! I hope thats all it was. I would like to use the same grind again so the rest of the valve train doesnt have to be changed. Now you have me thinking about going to another brand. If I'm not mistaken I think I read some where that Crane had some issues with cam cores being soft. I want to make sure this doesnt happen again. Thanks for the input.

 

[OldGuy 71Acadian]

Like Vin said, maybe because the cam was used that particular lobe was destined to grenade. Unfortunately it was time.

 

[Madmoose]

I dony know if they have done this or not yet but i remember readind that rotella t was going to remove the additives from their oil like everybody else.Imo i would buy some cam break in lube for the next time.

 

[Granny 67]

is it possable you had that rocker too tight? it was a used cam maybe it was just time to fail??

eather way clean everything up and start new with a new cam.these things just happen.

With me doing the wrenching, ANYTHING is possible! May have adjusted the intake valve while the exhaust was closing. Who knows.

I dony know if they have done this or not yet but i remember readind that rotella t was going to remove the additives from their oil like everybody else.Imo i would buy some cam break in lube for the next time.

I'm almost positive in the oil thread Veno put together even the new Rotella has enough of the good stuff in it. Either I bought four five gallon containers of old Rotella and thats what I been using.

 

[Vin63]

Yeah, it's really difficult to account for material production variances when these things are cast by the thousands...and, who knows, it could be a flaw at the molecular level near the surface that started the degradation process.

As far as other oil brand options...I supply some of the racers in my area who do their own engine building with Brad Penn. I use Brad Penn in my blown altered (methanol) and we haven't had any bearing issues. Just another option that you can look into on their Web site for a distributor in your area if it's getting difficult to find oil with higher levels of ZDDP.

 

[Paul Wright]

I lost an intake lobe on a crane solid flat tappet. The cam was used. The lifters and lobes all appeared to be in good condition. I bought a new set of Howards direct lube solid lifters, small hole in lifter face for added oil. Filled the motor with some Rotella T and primed it. Ran the break in at 2500 for 20 min. I have done this same proceedure on several solid flat tappets before without issue. I have had this motor running for about a year. Very few miles and 20 track passes. I pulled the intake and removed the lifter and its nasty!

The springs have 132# on the seat and 280# open. I did not remove the inner spring.

What should I different on the next cam install?

Here's a tip that will help. Put a dot on the pushrod near the rocker with a paint pen. Leave the lower valve cover bolts loose and remove the upper bolts. When you break in the engine, lift the inboard side of the valve covers slightly and peer in with a small, bright flashlight like a mini mag. The push rod (and dot) should be twirling around. If any pushrod is not twirling, STOP the break in and investigate. The lifter in that hole is probably bad and needs replacing.

 

[CNC BLOCKS]

The newer Rotella -T is not the best oil for cam break in as they have lowered the zinc content.

The other thing is I don't like the Crane cam cores as I have had 2 engines come in the shop last year with premature cam wear.

All the cam cores we use for the SBC are the P-55 cam cores which are the performance cam core and is harder then other cam cores.

On solid lifters we don't skimp as we use the tool steel one from PPC in NC. and some of our flat tappet Circle track cams have 170 at the seat and 430 over the nose and no lobe issues at all.

The oil we use is the http://www.cen-pe-co.com/ 20/50 which has 2300 PPM of zinc and even their deisel 15/40 S-3 oil in 1582 in zinc and seems to work fine.

Good oil, good oil and good lifters should work.

 

[levisnteeshirt]

Pro-Blend

i'd try Pro-blend racing formula next time and assembly lube. Back when i used to sell it , i tried every engine assembly lube against Pro-Blends , nothing was even close on the demo-machine.

Pro Blend gets a bad rap because alot of people over-used it and didn't understand how it worked. If its in the engine already , it can't do anything else by adding more. Then they'd take their oil pan off and find alot of buildup in the pan and cuss Pro-Blend. I no longer sell it but Jegs does

here is the assembly lube
http://www.jegs.com/i/Pro+Blend/797/6080/10002/-1

here is the engine treatment
http://www.jegs.com/i/Pro+Blend/797/6074/10002/-1

If someone wants to use alot of Pro-Blend in their engine of a drag car ( it does provide amazing results and then I guess people just have a natural tendency to over-use it ), this is what I'd recommend you do. After you add the first bottle, only add more right before you are going to drain the oil with the engine running and up to temp and set up where you can let it run for 10-15 minutes. ( this is if you want to keep your engine protected as much as possible without having any build up in the pan ) Pro-Blend recommends you add a full bottle every 3rd oil change but that senario may not work for a drag car. With the engine running , add 2/3's-3/4 of the bottle with it up to temp and running. After 10 minutes or so , stop the engine drain the oil hot. Then change the oil then start the engine , get it up to temp then add the remaining Pro-Blend that was left over. Pro-Blend has to be given the chance to wear off before it can provide any more of a added benefit. It is not oil itself , but creates an enviroment between 2 metal surfaces where oil's ability to prevent metal to metal contact is raised to over 90 % from around 45 %. It does this by treating the metal surfaces where oil is failing and changes the surface adhesion capacity of the hot metal where oil will bond to the heat and the many layers of a film of oil will now shear properly and oil will provide lubrication qualities that are truely remarkable. Its like " untieing the hand behind oils back " so now it will perfrom like its suppose to.

Pro-Blend will usually drop the water temp of a full size pick-up truck 15-20 degrees by treating the OIL. Yes it usually works that well. This should help alot now since the oil companies aren't treating the oil themselves the way they used to.