I agree with everything said and yes I made some bad judgements. On the engine builder as far as cost, he installed the cam and profile of my choice. He had no experience with ultradyne. Yes he purchased the cam kits but I told him wich ones to get.
I do feel like he is trying to resolve the situation as best he can.
Talked to ultradyne again today and all they are wanting to do is credit the 2 hyd cams and lifters toward the purchase of a set of roller lifters. Does not cover the cost of one set of roller lifters. 450.00 for the mark 4 reto fit rollers.
sure been a long road

Been there, done that last year.

Didn't want to spend the extra dough to upgrade to a roller cam (penny wise, pound foolish). Wiped out a lobe and spent $2K to fix everything. Luckilly it didn't wipe out any bearings.

I'll never use a flat tappet cam again.

I wiped out a lobe on an Ultradyne flat tappet amost two years ago, and the camshaft had over 100 Hrs on it when it failed. Ultradyne went out of business and I think they were purchased by Lunati, aka Holley. So you are dealing with a company with much deeper pockets than the old Ultradyne of Mississippi.

I agree with the comments on Bob Maderra. This guys know his stuff and there is no body better to deal with.

A gentleman known as Hydrocruiser did a lot of research on this issue and here is a brief explanation-

There are oil additives that reduce metal to metal contact which are known as anti-scuffing agents. One of the best is ZDDP, a Zinc and Phosphorous compound, if i recall correctly.

ZDDP kills catalytic converters, so oil manufacturers have had to reduce ZDDP significantly in oils rated pimarily for gasoline engines (oil grades such as SF, SG).

Cams and lifters experience tremendous unit loads which can overcome the hydraulic cushion provided by oil, and the only thing that saves the parts from disaster is the anti scuffing agents and EP (extreme pressure) additives.

The reccomendations I have seen are to use oil additives that contain ZDDP- but some of these create their own set of problems such as oil frothing. Another solution is to run off-road only oils such as Valvoline Racing oil or specialty oil like Royal Purple or Amsoil. Mobil V-Twin is intended for Motorcycles and contains good stuff- the base stock is a true synthetic with a very good addditive package.

In the near future look for EPA/DEQ agents to be checking your purchases at Wal-Mart to make sure you don't home-brew some outlaw oil. Or maybe BATFMO will take that duty over.

how did you break in the camshafts???? i am not familiar w/ ultradyne but my own boat w/ 454's has comp cams in it, and i have had no problems, my camaro w/ a small block has a crower flat tappet, i spin that to 7000, motor has 40,000 miles on it, and gets thrashed pretty regularly, a couple of my customers boats(fountains, etc) are using comp cams marine cams w/ no problems, i usually run them on the shop floor(after prelubing) , running them at the advised 2000 rpm mark with varying rpm's for 20 minutes, then change the oil, i run castrol 20/50 in everything and have never had a cam fail in 10 years, i also use comps lube on the cam and base of the lifters, i have seen retro roller cams break the tiebar and chew up the cam, i have also seen roller wheel failure- so rollers have their share of problems-roller cams are expensive!!! it is nice to see that everyone here has deep pockets- it seems to be a requirement!!

Glad to see you are communicating with Bob Madara with your cam, and engine project.

Motors were broken in with one of the inner springs removed. Once fired the motor wasn't allowed to idle. All the push rods were marked and the valve cover was removed while the motor was running to make sure the push rods were twisting as they were coming up.

Once the motor was broken in the oil was changed and the springs were reinstalled. Takes a lot of extra time to do this but in my mind it is worth it.

When you call Lunati, did you speak to Harold Brookshire? He was Ultradyne and is one of the most knowlegable cam people there is. He takes great pride in his designs.

I have run his custom grinds for years, both roller and flat tappet.

I understand the lobe issue, but what caused the lifter to break?

I cant thank you enough for standing behind your product Laz. You are a class act and would not hesitate to do business with you again. You are one of the few good guys in this industry

Bob

Harold is not at Lunati anymore