Thread: Solid Rollers on the Street...

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

I've heard synthetic oil doesn't work well with roller lifters because it is so slippery the rollers don't roll, they just sit there and develop flat spots on them. Is there any truth to that?

Don

the roller cam lifters can skid i have used strait weight 40 the brad pen state oil is what alot of guys use. the cam bore center line to the crank shaft main bore can be off making the lifter bores not true .making it harder for good tracking

BTW: I haven't heard my "I told you so" from jerry yet? I know both pat and jerry warned me back when I had my broken rocker that my lifters would be soon behind...

-Chris

It is possible for the rollers to not roll anytime roller bearing friction is much greater than the cam/roller contact friction. This can definitely happen due to bad contact geometry or failing roller bearings. Seems less likely that it would be an oil lubricity issue but I have never seen any data to really back that up. Friction is based largely upon viscosity so I don't see a concrete reason how friction is that different between synthetic and dino oils with the same viscosity. However if you get into boundary layer friction other factors may apply. Confused, yeah me too.

Kitz

I've run synthetic in all of my race engines since Mobil 1 came out in the mid 70's and never have had a problem of too good of lubrication....

Pat, thanks for the heads up on the Comp tool for the lifter bores!

Well, the jury's finally back and here's what we found....

one lifter complete failure lost all needles one other has loose roller but not as bad. Cam tore up but not as bad as I was thinking it would be. Chewed up two piston skirts real good and scored three cylinders (two worse than the other). Crank and bearings were okay but will polish as long as it's out...

Here's the plan:

I know it really should have a .010 bore but will just ball hone the bad cylinders (worst cylinder has .002 variance).

Polish damaged skirts with scotch brite... won't be good as new but should be okay(?)

New cam... my engine builder has an Isky in mind that's just a little bigger than the Lunati I was running before but I don't know the specs yet.

New lifters (Isky Red-Zone, pressurized oiling, no needles!), new rockers (Crower SS), new pushrods, new springs (240# Trickflow 1.550" direct replacement), new timing set (Cloyes double roller, same as before... old one stretched ~1"), new oil pump (Melling M77HV, same as before)

Replace windage tray with screen (?)

All told I'm expecting this will be $3k+ endeavor for what could have been ~$500 set of new lifters in the off-season... live and learn! I'll be switching to 20W50 from the 10W30 I was running before... I like the Brad Penn Grade 1 but might think about Royal Purple... I think it is less $$$.

There's a chance I'll be on the strip next weekend (???)... we'll see how it shakes out.

Cheers,

-Chris