[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by 326HO-Lemans

Anybody have experience re-heat treating lifters?
Could it be done on the new soft lifters?


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I don't believe that heat treating the lifters is where the problem is, in an effort to cut costs and corners the ingredients to good steel are expensive. By cutting corners the product is cheapened, and inferior. If I'm not mistaken the good lifters were case hardened, and then chilled, doubtful that the current manufacturers are doing all the steps, or they're not using the right ingredients in the formulation. One of the times that close enough, really isn't close enough.

Steel can also be dirty, having impurities that make the steel unsuitable for the usage, and contamination makes it weak. Carbon content has to be correct to make steel durable also. There's more to it than melting down old cars and pouring the steel into molds, then machining it to spec.

In 1977 GM started trying to save money by not adding the same ingredients into their cast iron that the blocks had been made previous to 1977. The blocks were soft and so were the crankshafts. They wore out before 60,000 miles. GM had always had good quality castings until 1977. That point where they started letting accountants make decisions on quality, is when they gave their business to the competition, especially the import makers. Chasing pennies, cost them big dollars. I believe that same thing is now going on in the aftermarket lifter manufacturers.