Isky Red Zone with Easy Roll Lifters?
 

I am looking to upgrade to a solid roller cam that Rmbuilder has designed for me. I am thinking about using Isky Red Zone with Esay Roll Lifters. Has anyone tried them or heard good or bad about them? I talked to Rmbuilder and Isky today, they both seem to like them. Isky told me so far there were no failures. Then again, what else would they say. However, I do trust Rmbuilders opinion on this. He has concurred with Isky.

http://www.iskycams.com/BearingFlyer.pdf

Looks good. Thanks for the info.

I have heard the easy rolls are awesome also....wish they had them around 5 yrs ago when I was destroying lifters... on a high HP big inch NA motor with a "small" 280/288 @.050, ~ .780" lift cam...:D

Best out there according to my engine builder.
I have 4 extra sets for future use.

Mr Gadgets and ordered a set each today. I hope they work out well for us both.

Somebody has to be first! We can bring this thread back next year after 50-100 hrs and see how everybody is doing.
Thanks for taking the risk...

I'm using the Isky Red Zone lifters and am in the process of pulling the intake to see if I have a bad one. I'm pretty sure the lifter on #1 intake is bad. I don't think the cam went first but I'll know by tomorrow.

That sucks. Were the lifters the new style with EZ-Roll wheels? We also went for the captive guide bar lifters.

It is now the top of the nine inning for Joe Schubeck Roller X lifters and they struck out. I have about 90 hrs on my set and two of them have cracks in them.. So that is the reason I am going back to Isky.
Hey maybe the three boxes of old ones I have, they can rebuild them, paint them red and put the EZ wheels on them.. just at thought.

Vinny and I will post back after the 100hr mark and let you know..

Check300, did it do any damage to that killer motor of yours?? I hope not!!

D*ck

D*ck,
When comparing the # of hours we put on our boats, I think I will hit 100 hours first. Hopefully, we made the right decision here. I hate being the first kid on the block with the new toy. :eek:

Vinny

Well, Isky's record of no failures of the Red Zone lifters is intact. We found a plugged oil passage in the lifter so no oil was getting to the top of the push rod and it caused wear on the rocker causing a loss of valve lash. All in all about the best possible failure. Cam is fine and no disassembly necessary.

I had a failure on the Isky Red Zone lifters....

Details??

Thats good news. Gotta love the "No tear down required."

Check 300,
you lucky dog you!! LOL. I was not so lucky, complete tear down and new lifter bushings, new lifters, new push rods. :(:( Gettin tired of not going fast!! I may have to join you guys and presurize this motor??? :) What's the learning curve on that??

The learning curve on what we're doing was pretty steep but the good news is we have it figured out. If you decide to head in that direction let me know. We have a pretty big list of what does NOT work.

Bill

I have broken solid roller lifters using Comp Cam #866's, the Isky Red Zone #372-96-RH and others. I am convinced they all will break with enough sustained RPM and hours...at least without extensive testing. Maybe the new Isky Easy Roller will be a break-thru...but I wouldn't count on it. My Isky lifter failed due to the wheel fracturing with no indication of wear/change in valve lash. Why? Probably due to poor tracking of the cam lobe.
For 2007 we are using the Crower .937 solid rollers and a 55 mm cam core; however, the significant difference is the entire valve train as been SpinTron tested and stabilized. With the SpinTron process you install all your valve train components into a specially prepared block and run at all RPM's by turning the valve train with a mandrel (in place of a crank) connected to an electric motor. Stability is obtained by matching the cam profile, lifters, valve springs, rockers, timing chain/belt and pushrods. Fine tuning is generally reached with valve springs or by varying the pushrod diameter (stiffness) and wall thickness (weight). The SpinTron process uses a "camera" connected to a computer to measure in .001's the lifters ability to track the entire cam lobe at all RPM levels.
This technology is a primary reason that todays Cup and Busch cars can live at 9500+ RPM.
The BBC lifters get a lot of bad press because this is the valve train component that generally breaks first. The real issue is likely due to a miss-match of valve train parts. For this reason, no single component will likely correct a flaw in you valve trains design. In other words, making the lifter stronger may be a band aid and is not addressing the root cause.
Who can help? Without doing your own testing, consider letting CompCam or Crane pick all the components for your entire valve train where they have done system SprinTron testing.

Hopefully my testing and the SpinTron technology will be the end of my BBC valve train concerns.

Bill,
I am thinking of psi on the cold side instead of the exhaust side, but pressure is pressure, right?? :):). It wont happen before this winter, need to just get back on the water.. Hope to see you out there, when I do.

D*ck

So what are the ramp speeds on the cams that are breaking lifters?

I've heard just as many problems with hyd. roller cams...

BenPerfected,

Interesting post. I wasnt aware that you can have your personal valvetrain tested on a spintron. Who did that for you? I agree that many times a lifter failure is blamed on the lifter when the real problem lies elsewhere. I am sure everyone will agree, we cant take our valvetrain lightly. It has to be perfect or it will fail. You cant have too much stability.

Vinny

Vinny,
You have to find or prepare a SpinTron block to get started. What is used is generally a specially prepared trashed block. This custom SpinTron block to have the same deck height, cam bore and lifter bore as your combination. I know of race shop in NC that would work with on the testing. I am sure there are others. The testing cost is similar to dyno work. You could make great progress in a day if your cam grind works and you have access to numerous parts.
The SprinTron equipment is sold by Bob Fox who is also a primary manufacture of customer pushrods. I was fortunately able to test at their Detroit facility. The pushrod company is Trend Products in Detroit. Bob also owns Diamond Pistons. Trend makes many of the private label push rods you see in the valve train industry.
You only need one intake and exhaust push rod so you can go well prepared for testing for a few hundred $ with a few different valve springs, maybe two lifters and numerous push rod options like 3/8, 7/16 double tapered in wall thicknesses like .120, .180, etc. It is pretty much a parts swap process to find the close to perfect stable combination. The change time for small changes between pulls is 10-30 minutes.
If you want more info, send me an e-mail and I will call you.
Sprague

Thats great information, thanks. Unfortunetly, being down during the short New York boating season, doesnt allow much time for exotic testing. For now, I am going to put the engine back together to the best of my abilities and re-evaluate in the winter. :drink:

I agree that this is a better winter project. The Dart block we used was actually prepped in NY. The NY engine builder Mike Riley, MRE Power Products and I partnered with is a NY based Northern Dirt Modified BBC engine builder friend of Mikes. Our set-up's were the same. If you are going to build with a close to standard 9.8 deck height and use the 55 mm cam bore you could most likely borrow/rent this test set-up. The .937 lifter bore can be bushed down to test with smaller dia lifters if you prefer. They also bought the drive mandrel from Trend so you would be able to pre-rig and show up ready to SpinTron test. This set-up also has the necessary dry sump oil pan and is rigged with a Jessel timing belt system.
You might be interested in using MRE to build the long block using the set-up we tested. MRE's 505 ci NA engines made 780 HP on Sterling's dyno and 765 HP at KE's in marine dress. The Dart IE ports were designed & ported by OSO's JimV.
After 20 years, 6 engine builders and nine pairs of engines, I am finally there...

Any updates on the EZ Rolls?

Anyone tried these? We are rebuilding our motors and ran crane .904 lifters with zero issues.