BenPerfected

Dick,
If your only real change is the lifter weight, I wonder if the weight of the LSM keyed lifter system would be similar to the Schubeck.

Mr Gadgets

Ben,
LSM gets a pretty penny for their lifters.. they wouldnt tell me how long they would last. He said he as a boat running them, but would not guess as to how long they live. The way he said it was not very convincing.
I am attempting to sell this block, heads, intake combo and start over. I just dont want to pass on a problem to the next guy. Lunati had the idea of a long duration cam with .670" lift.. real easy ramps. I would think that would do it, with lighter springs, maybe. If someone wanted it, I would let it go. I think it would look very cool in a 55 chevy somewhere!

bob

Daredevil, from what I know of the big chief head, the valves are angled at 14 deg., the intakes are equally spaced, the runners are more symetrical/equal length if you will rather than having a couple longer than the other two, the exhaust ports are what 2"+ higher than a stock config? These heads flow lots of air/fuel but like to be up over 6000 rpm or feed large displacement motors. Maybe someone that actually really knows this head will chime in.

BenPerfected

Dick,
Both the LSM and Jesel lifters are pricey...about $2500-3000 set. The Jesel website www.jeselonline.com says the tie bar .905 lifters are 229-231 gm depending on the wheel. The Dogbone style are 96-98 gm. I have the installation/set-up tool for the Jesel dog bone style.
Compared to starting over, $3000 might be worth the risk. This all assumes these lifters would work in your block. It is my understanding that all/most of the Craftsmen Truck Series racers use the Jesel keyed lifters.

2112

Crane has also acknowledged a defect in the manufacturing of their lifters (top of the line pro-comp) and bought back 3 sets I had beginning to fail in the body section of the tappet. They blamed it on heat treating but I think it was a design flaw.

BenPerfected

2112,
Sounds like you caught your lifter problem early. "It's heat treating", etc, etc....it seems clear that many HP parts companies like Crane, Crower, etc don't have ongoing quality control processes. Don't you wish that Toyota sold aftermarket BBC lifters? What do these marketing focused companies have invested in the area of inspection, measurement or quality control? How do you know?
Isky claims their Red Zone lifters have extensive SpinTron test time. Do they test each production run or batch?
It becomes real clear that when many engine builders find a part that works, they are reluctant to change or step out of the box.
I'm curious, how did you find out Crane was having a problem your specific lifter?
Whining in TX,
Ben

2112

I got lucky. Found an issue with mismatched retainers and decided to inspect everything down to the cam, pulling the manifold, and had to pull like hell to get the lifters out of the bores.

The lifter bodies are .873" the bores are .875 and the shoulders of the lifter where the axles are were .875+. Crane had the shoulders back cut to save weight.

I went back to my old heavy Schnieder (crowers) lifters. They are not cut back under the axle.

I am going to really upgrade the pushrods next.

SneakyPete

Just a thought, but does anyone think that durability of cam and lifters could be strengthened by utilizing the cryo treatment that is being used on the XR gears? If you treated the cam and lifter wheels perhaps there would be a durability benefit...seems to be working great in the drives....

Vinny P

I cant say if that would help lifters last longer, but I am the living proof of that process making drives last longer.

Mr Gadgets

My guy (I have Vinny's gears done) does cams, not sure if they can do lifters with out disassembly. That would be a manufactures process, I would believe. But valve springs are a deffinite canidate and I have heard nothing but good for the process. I am sending my next set of springs in to have it done. I will talk to him about lifters this coming week and see what he says.

Ben, in the process of searching for oil pumps, I came across an interesting thread about Melling Oil pumps. Seems they changed some of thier pumps to cheaper ( Auto Zoo demanded they sell the pumps to them cheaper) quality and kept the same part number. These drag race and street guys were going crazy trying to find out if they had good pumps or bad.
So even if someone finds the perfect product, you dont know from week to week if the manufacture is working for the stock holder or the consumer.
Soon we will all be GREEN and we will be worried about windings in our electric motors and battery life, etc. And I know the China batteries are junk!! LOL!