[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by 68WarDog

FJ. I've heard of hydraulic roller lifters needle bearings issues in the 5.7 Mopar hemi. IMHO the needle bearings are starving for oil, locking up the roller and taking out the cam and engine. Would this affect the lifter bore?Johnson has addressed this issue, HLJ roller lifters with the pin oiling option. Part # 2375 SE

I believe the hemi does have some inherent problems now that theyve been in service several years they start to show. Lifters being an issue in just one brand of engine tells me it's an engine issue or something related to it. Or you would see it in all the oem's.

As far as needle bearings go there is different thought on that from engine builders to manufacturers and we've discussed it here before.
Needle bearing rollers are believed to be better than a bushing for a street car. The Argument is that needles will tend to hold oil while sitting with more crevices to trap oil making for a better lubricated cold start. A bushing however doesn't really have all those places to hold oil. Now we have pin oiling so does it really matter?

There are other arguments that's just one example.

Rollers have been around oem's since the mid 80's with millions on the roads. My son's fox body is one example with 268,000 miles, never a valve cover off and runs perfectly. Needle bearings and no pin oiling. I'm even thinking of a cam swap and will put those lifters right back in. Did that with high mile LS engines all the time.

You can beat yourself up worrying about this or that but in the end really it's such a small percentage of problems. I would however recommend buying good stuff and not what's on sale that week. If it means spending more money then I'll do it. I prefer quality over price. We all just have a different way of looking at it I guess.