Had engines built and ran a total of 12 hrs. One engine had pushrod come out from under rocker arm. Investigated further and can see that the hyd. lifter "top" is lying off to the side of lifter. Appears that snap ring came off? At any rate beat the ends of the one peice push rod flat and messed the underside of the roller rocker. Bad thing is the other engine is ticking, maybe more problems. This is the second set of cams for these motors. Wiped lobe on one in 1 hr. Note that these engines were completly redone using all new components and balanced.
I know all about the problems with the hyd. cams lately with oil formulation change etc. My question is can anyone suggest a good roller type cam capable of 450-475 hp at 5000 rpm.
Currently was running hyd. flat tappet cams without much success. Cam manufacture will not refund my money (purchased complete cam set including springs) only will replace or credit towards roller setup. Using ultradyne cams. Don't want to lose completly what I have already spent but cautious at the same time.
At any rate I need some cam specs for roller cam for a 1989 454 bored 30 over,gil exh., rect. port heads, alum dual plane hi rise w/ new eldebrock 750's, roller rockers,fluid dampner, 9.2 compression.
Cam specs that I was running are Dur. @ 50 223 int./ 231 exh.
seat Dur. 280 int/288 exh.
gross lift 525 int./550 exh.
From what little time I got to run these it did not seem very aggressive but I never ran it above 3800/4000 rpm yet.
thanks everyone that has helped in this project so far.

Just curious here.. Since the cams are flat tappet, how were the engines first started up with regards to cam break in?

I would ask the same question.

Also, not sure if you had your engines professionaly built, if you're not building them yourself, then make sure you find a good, reputable shop familiar with building marine hi-perf engines. Anyway, if you can afford it, go with a hydraulic roller set-up, less hastle and no break-in required.

"rmbuilder"/Bob Madara of Marine Kinetics in N.Y. can assist you in the proper selection of a cam profile for your engine and application. He has help many on here. Bob's number is (585) 654-8583.

Hope all goes well for you next time around.

I forgot to mention...the cam specs you have listed above I don't think is too big or small for your application. It sounds just about right for a 454cid marine engine with a good decent aftermarket exhaust system like the GIL's you have. It should put you at about 5200-5500rpm or so which is in the ball park, and should be ideal. But I would consult Bob Madara on that just so that no reversion is at play here with everything else that is going on with your engine---especially if you have water mixing with the exhaust gases, etc.

Also, if you wiped out some cam lobes, that means you have a bunch of tiny metalic junk in the engine oil that went through your oil pump, bearings, etc before finally being trapped in the oil filter. Therefore, you may have damaged the bearings which could eventually cause a major engine failure.

Were the engines professionally built? Maybe they will work with you a bit in the damage control area.

hopefully bob didn't tell you to reuse the oil cooler and lines!!!

Engines were profesionaly built. As for break in followed cam manufacture recommendations to the letter. Oil type everything. Engine builder is tearing down both engines, paying cost of dyno run time (did not dyno first time) and splitting cost of pulling/installing engines. Engine builder built engines for parts cost only as favor. Think that we may have gotten bad cams or missed something?
Cams were broke in using rotella 30 and 1 pint of EOS additive. Pre-lubed to 40 psi and kept pre-lubing for a few minutes. Fired engine and went straight to 2000 rpm. Ran for 5 min and then fluctuated rpm between 2000 and 2600 rpm for 30 min.
Do you think that I need to trust roller cam set up from same manufacture?

Wow, glad you're on duty! I think we'll let Bob speak for himself, but as long as you're riding the wave...just in case---maybe you should be the one to call Bob up and give him the message about the oil cooler & lines while you're on a roll here. 585-654-8583

What rockers?

Sound like coil bind, check your springs ?

The roller rockers are harland sharp 1.7 ratio. New as well as the springs that cam manufacture recommended and provided. As far as coil bind don't know. When I got engines back we installed them. Don't know that much on building engines but if there is something that I need to check on from engine builder let me know.
thanx again