Well, I can’t say I didn’t think twice when I was shipped several bad lifters and have been hearing horror stories about the poor quality of new camshafts. I’m a few hours into break in on my 351w with everything going as planned but have started to develop a fairly hard tap coming from a valve set on cylinder six or seven. The old half broomstick to ear method lets me know that the passenger side valve train sounds very smooth and normal, but the center bolts on the driver side valve cover are transmitting the hard tap quite clearly.
The original cam and lifters were fine, so I am going to pull covers tomorrow and start looking at how bad things are. Maybe I have a loose rocker, but I’m not counting on it.
Around 2005 lifter production moved from the USA to India. Around 2012 camshaft blanks started to be made in China. Some brands (Morel, Crower) continued to be made in the USA. Lifters made in India are suspect along with cam blanks made in China. Made me start collecting older Autolite and Motorcraft lifters found on eBay.
Lots going on here at home and not enough time to work on the Cougar but want to post this delayed update and see if what I think is going on makes sense to others. I pulled the driver side valve cover and when bumping the starter found that the rocker for the #6 intake was loose when closed. I retorqued it hoping I missed that one during assembly, buttoned everything up, but the tap persisted. I pulled the valve cover again and leveled a metal straight edge across the studs, and it rocks back and forth atop the #6 intake valve stud, so I think I have a stud pulling loose. I am guessing that because the stud is 1/8” or so higher than it should be, I am hearing noise from excessive clearance but looking for confirmation that that is plausible.
I am considering drilling and pinning the stud. Thoughts?
Google is designed to promote sites that are paying to get their products on the top of the list, and since their algorithm to populate what you are shown is not public, we have no idea what the logic mix is to present information. I will always trust personal experience with a product from someone on this board over Google.
There was a utube showing a homemade alignment fixture for tapping the boss
Nice but way to involved
Apiece of 1/4 × 1 alum flatbar with the adjoining stud pattern drilled in it and a hole for the tap shank. Put a couple jam nuts on the studs to act as a standoff and tap the boss using grease
Most of the chips will be in the grease…clean out with a qtip. Install hexless studs wit loctite and double nuts. Should be able to do in car
The #6 intake rocker stud was a fairly straight forward replacement, but the original stud probably pulled out in the first place because this is the #6 intake lifter that I finally got around to pulling…
I kept the factory cam and lifters and made sure the lifters were bagged and numbered, so I am going to flush the oil system and try putting it back in and see if I can get 30-60k miles out of it before it needs another overhaul.
Unfortunately, the condition of that lifter suggests the cam lobe has probably also lost material where a new lifter may not resolve your problem. It doesn’t take much to lose the very slight lobe taper needed to rotate the lifter in its bore.
I feel your pain, I lost a cam and lifter set a couple of engines ago due to inferior lifters that hit the market right after COVID. In my case the material that was lost ended up scoring a couple of bearings and embedding into the piston skirts. Cam manufacturer did the right thing and replaced the cam and lifters but ended up having to remachine the crank, ball-honing some of the scoring out of the cylinder walls, cleaning up the pistons, buying new rings and bearings and reassembling. That was the only cam I’d ever lost after doing close to a dozen engines over the years with zero failures.
Anyway, the attached COMP Cams picture provides a very good illustration of how the cam lobe to lifter face interacts during operation.
Absolutely, and I will be shocked and buy a stack of lottery tickets if the lobe isn’t as bad as the lifter. Here’s a picture next to a lifter with a good heel as a comparison.
The head is still on so I couldn’t use my puller. I expected a fight but a light coaxing with a screwdriver under the spring retaining lip got it started and a slid it out easily by hand with a dry rag. What could have mushroomed is just gone, so hopefully most of it ended up in the pan and not circulating through places where it can do a lot of damage.
