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Ok, it didn't take long at all to find the GRID Corvette. I think I had been parked for all of ten minutes and started walking toward the grandstands when I saw the GRID car roll in! Cannot miss it and you should not miss it. Great looking Vette with some great personal touches to it.
Great to meet you guys too! Hope you made it home safely and without any incidents.
The smoke in the background is just the burnout contest, no Corvettes were on fire or harmed during the taking of this picture.
Great to meet you guys too! Hope you made it home safely and without any incidents.
Hi Gripp!
Yes, it was great meeting you! Thanks so much for seeking us out and saying hello. I can't believe how big the Carlisle show is.
We didn't quite make it home incident free. That little oil problem that started at the car show wasn't a PCV valve issue after all. We got within an hour or two of home when, under heavy throttle it started back firing.
So we eased it on home the rest of the way and I will have to pull the head on the driver's side. The Edelbrock head came per-assembled but I think a valve guide is out of whack.
Soooo... I finally got motivated enough to pull apart GRID CAR.
The lifters and cam are garbage.
Got a new set on the way. Going with roller lifters and a roller cam this time.
Root cause? As soon as I told the Edelbrock tech about the cupped lifters he said, "you didn't use conventional break-in oil did you?" ...
Nope. I thought mobile1 synthetic was "even better" than break-in oil. He said, "gets this call 20 times a week about cupped lifters..."
The Lifter bottoms are made to bond with the zinc and phosphorus in conventional oils. Oops. I had heard the zinc discussion before, but never thought it was the difference between running great and grenade-ing the valve-train. So I am dumb.
They were very nice on the phone and took good care of me. Thanks Edelbrock.
The Lifter bottoms are made to bond with the zinc and phosphorus in conventional oils. Oops. I had heard the zinc discussion before, but never thought it was the difference between running great and grenade-ing the valve-train.
zinc..who needs that stinkin zinc?? Mako63, here is your proof.
Those cupped lifters are why I went roller all the way. I went thru that twice and I did use break in oil. If the block isnt perfectly machined the lifters arent guaranteed to break in. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you dont.
Roller cam and lifters dont need the 20 minute break in process.
break in oil won't do crap for anything most cam / lifter failures is because people don't know what the heck they are doing. not trying to be harsh but really!
My issue was the lifter cylinder was not machined in perfect alignment with the cam. I researched this very well after the second time and I found several articles talking about how the block has to be machined right or the break in is no guarantee. I had the block check by the people that built the motor and they confirmed the issue.
I ended up going with a roller system and never looked back.
I would love to hear what you did wrong according to 7t9l82. He seems to come off as a sex expert. ( A F**cking know it all )
if you had an issue with lifter bore alignment a roller cam will have an issue too at some point, if not corrected.
you have to have moly lube on the lobes of the cam ( none on the journals) and the lifter faces. then you have to have an oil with adequate amounts of zinc. ( break in oil normally has no zinc)
you shouldn't crank an engine a long time, you want it to fire up quickly and when it does keep the revs up.
i saw a guy a few years ago put wheel bearing grease on a flat tappet cam and used break in oil , when i told him he was going to have a big problem , he thought i was a sex expert too. the next day he had changed his mind. flat tappet cams have gotten a bad rap as of late. but it is mostly in the details where the real problem is. i installed over a hundred solid lifter and hydraulic lifter cams in my life and never had a problem. but i have found a few i made the manufacturer replace because of some issue. think ill change my name to sex expert
We did have assembly lube on the lobes and the lifter bottoms. The engine was a fresh build, so it was gonna start whenever it decided to start. There is only so much you can do to prime the oil pump, carb, etc.
That said, the old networking grapevine has gotten word back to me from a GM performance builder that Edelbrock lifters are known for this, and Edelbrock should have stopped selling them with their aggressive cam profiles long ago.
The truth is, I will never know. maybe it was the zinc, maybe it was the parts, maybe it was the install, maybe it was the block.
At this point my opinion is this: Engines are dumb. I'm going to design a better one from scratch.
We did have assembly lube on the lobes and the lifter bottoms. The engine was a fresh build, so it was gonna start whenever it decided to start. There is only so much you can do to prime the oil pump, carb, etc.
That said, the old networking grapevine has gotten word back to me from a gm performance builder that edelbrock lifters are known for this, and edelbrock should have stopped selling them with their aggressive cam profiles long ago.
The truth is, i will never know. Maybe it was the zinc, maybe it was the parts, maybe it was the install, maybe it was the block.
At this point my opinion is this: Engines are dumb. I'm going to design a better one from scratch.
08-19-2014, 02:52 PM
