I've been told several times over the past couple years to steer clear of their roller lifters and rockers from friends and two engine builders who saw catastrophic failures such as this.
This happening @ 100 hours sucks bigtime and happening in a drag car with very few passes sucks just as much or more.
We need to hear about situations like these to stay more informed.
I'm sorry to hear about your misfortune and wish for you many hundred of hours of enjoyment from your new build.
See ya
Kelly

Yes, stud girdles.

The man speaks the truth. When those pushrods start flexing, it causes thee valvetrain to become unstable and unleashes all kinds of harmful harmonics that pulse all through the valvetrain and fatigue the parts. I have a set of 0.120 wall Manton pushrods that have never been run - I'll sell them at half cost if they will end up working for you. PM me if interested for details.

A decent amount do...but you are right, most do not.

So Randy, Is it possible your engine builder used the wrong parts and not the Crane parts Mercury racing assembled originally

Also the other work looks like it had issues so maybe the lash was loose

[ATTACH=CONFIG]530308[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]530309[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]530310[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]530311[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]530312[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]530313[/ATTACH]some pics of the cylinder walls & piston that the damage happened to. The date code on the piston says 2008, these engines were sold to me as brand new 2012 builds. The mystery gets deeper.

I would be very interested in piston to wall clearance and ring gap. I doubt all of that scoring is due to the lifter failure.

Suffice to say, it looks like mistakes were made.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]530314[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]530315[/ATTACH]Mcprodesign, these are not merc engines. Sorry for any confusion. These engines are Bullet Engines 650hp normally aspirated series 540 cid. They are Merlin III blocks, this one has a Callies compstar crank, Manley H beam rods, Manley flat top pistons, Edelbrock marine rpm heads, Crane cam, & lifters, Crower pushrods, & Scorpion rocker arms. At least that is what the part #s are telling me.

Just another reason I have built my own engines for the last 40 years. I have made mistakes and paid for it. But I learned from those mistakes. I am in the process of building a 598 right now.