Mushroom Lifter 282S

[chris401]

Swapping intakes out I found all my lifters had this surface. Picture isn't the best and lint on surface may be misleading, distorted/damaged surface is only in the circle almost like a water spot. They are all flat and you almost cant feel it. Cam and lifters only have 9,000 miles on them and have been in Rotella Triple protection along with additive. My other solid cam with these lifters don't have this wear. Mia investigated and confirmed my findings.



This normal?

[jayb]

That is definitely NOT normal; I've never seen the bottom of a lifter look like that.  I'd replace those lifters, and I'd also be concerned about the cam.  How do the cam lobes look?

Sounds like you did everything right on the oil side of things.  Probably you just got a bad set of lifters.  Where did the lifters come from?

[chris401]

It was in a Comp Cam kit I got from a machine shop I no longer use. I'm looking for ricept today. I will just eat it if I have to go through them. All I did was a visual and check gap, all looked good. Engine is being replaced in a few weeks with a cheap rebuild. Only mine will be un painted with new gaskets, silicon visible and empty bearing boxes. Not the Krylon soaked ones we see online.

[machoneman]

2X it's the lifters. Haven't seen that weird look in person (plenty of bad lifters as Jay noted but they don't look like yours) but I did see one like that posted on another forum awhile ago. The lack of any shiny spot at all seems to indicate poor heat treat, yet it's amazing if that is true you were able to go 9K miles on all 16 lifters. Puzzling, indeed!

[Barry_R]

Almost looks as if some additive compound got embedded into the face.  Maybe you can actually get too much zinc with the oil and the additive combined?  In any case I'd be tempted to swap them out.  With 9,000 miles you're most likely well beyond any aftermarket part's normal warranty period so I would not expect much help there.

[My427stang]

Look close at the base circle of the cam, if the footprint is very wide, there could be more wear in the cam than you think.  Often you can compare it to one of the other ones to get an idea

As far as reusing it with new lifters, it all depends what I saw on the cam. 

[chris401]

Ill inspect the cam when I pull engine in a few weeks. I swaped from streetmaster to a 66 S. Will pulling the baffolds out of the PBF valve covers solve adjustable rocker clearance issues? Will it create any unnessisary oil consumtion without pvc baffold?

[cammerfe]

If I go dig in the right box, I'm sure I can come up with several sets of shell-style lifters from twenty to forty years ago. And I believe at least some of them will exhibit the same sort of 'looks' as the picture.

When set on a flat surface (such as a piece of plate glass) is the very slightly convex surface of the contact end of a new lifter still perceptible?

KS

[chris401]

The 4 that I checked were still flat, the rest were visualy checked. What Barry said made some sense on too much zinc. When I check the cam Ill post what I find and get with you on lifters.
Thanks