Re: Valve question....

Posted by Gary49eight On 2020/10/11 8:37:45

Hello all. A word of warning: NEVER put new lifters on a used cam, or old lifters on a new cam. Cam lobe surfaces and the base of lifters are hardened (usually induction), and have to be run in together. That means moly grease on the surfaces, and follow the cam maker's run-in recommendations. With new parts, what looks smooth to us, on a micro scale is rough. New lifters alone will rapidly wear through the hard layer on the cam lobe and result in serious cam wear. One advantage of these low revving flatheads is they only need soft valvesprings, which means reduced cam wear. If removing a cam with the intention of reusing it, the lifters should be kept in order ans go back in their original bores.
Lifter bases are radiused so they rotate, this evens wear. If the cam and lifters are working, don't fix it. Re-radiusing the lifter base, that is removing the run-in surface on the lifter. I wouldn't recommend it.
Gary