[cerino2000]

Ok, it's back together. Initial results are promising but I will have to wait to drive it and such to say for sure. I put the roller rockers back on. Right now it is so quiet you would never guess that ANYTHING about it was roller. It sounds like a factory valvetrain Pontiac. The lifters I put in it had comp cams name on them but I believe these were sourced from Delphi.

It went from stone cold to full temperature with what I did to it tonight. Took less than 30 secs for them all to pump up. I re-broke it in for about 20 mins and it stayed quiet the entire time, all cylinders.

I'll report back, to finish up this whole experience, once I have had time to drive it and warm it up and cool it down a bit and see how it acts. If it is noisy again then I will call it par and roll with it but like I said, it is quieter now than it has ever been since I first fired the engine a month ago.

[Billy177]

good to hear mine are comps too as they came in the kit with my XE274H and they have stayed quiet for 15,000 miles so far

[cerino2000]

Just a final follow up. All is quiet over here. I won't EVER be buying a set of sealed power lifters again. I replaced the SP with the comp cams lifters instead. My understanding is that the particular set that I got were delphi lifters. They are as quiet now as they were when I fired the car a few days ago.

The noise you hear in the video in the first post is NOT normal. If you hear that, no it's not normal. The XE274 with these new lifters that I have in my car now is as quiet as any comp cam I have ever used in the past long before they even had the XE series.

Also, the noise does NOT mean you have wiped a lobe. Note that when I broke mine in, I did it right. Went with the inner springs removed and tons of break in lube. Had 500 miles on it when I went back in to get those POS lifters out and the cam looked as new as when I installed. Doesn't mean you didn't wipe a lobe but doesn't guarantee that you wiped one either.

Prior to pulling the engine back apart I tried several different things to get it to quiet down. In the process I learned that the Valvoline VR1 is some great oil. I make this case by how many miles I put on the oil before I could tell that it wasn't in as good a shape as when I first put it in. The regular Valvoline lasted about 100 miles before you could tell it wasn't in as good a shape. The VR1 is still holding up.

Lastly, when I first pulled the POS lifters out I visually inspected each of them. I would almost swear that one of them had the outer shell oiling hole and the inner piston oiling (or bleed down) hole in line with each other. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that it is also one of the lifters I took apart to see how it worked and didn't install it the same way. It was only after I toolk the comp lifters apart that I realized all of them were installed 180 degrees apart that I realized this was a problem. Never could verify that that is what I saw on the Sealed Power lifters because as mentioned, I think it was one that I took apart.

Anyways, to Sealed Power a big kick in the nuts for such chitty quality control causing me to have to tear it back down again. If I had your address I would be sending you a big fat bill for my time, parts, and misery.

Sealed Power are the lower priced lifters at about $50 a set. Proof in the pudding that you get what you pay for.

[77 Canamman]

There are only a couple of lifter manufacturers now. Most lifters currently sold are junk. The Delphi's are the better ones.

[Jack Ferris]

I just did a motor for a gentleman using a 274XE and Comp lifters. After a thorough break in and an immediate oil change, it wiped out the #7 exhaust lobe. The car would idle fiine but as soon as you would open up the throttle a little it would start to pop through the carb.
I think I've used every brand of flat hydraulic and solid cam out there. I've even had the break in time as little as 5 minutes(due to some kind of problem) and in 20 years I've never had a lobe go round on me. What gives with these cams? This sucks doing the job twice and getting paid once.....

[cerino2000]

Well the obvious question that will be thrown is

"Did you remove the inner springs during break in?"

[Jack Ferris]

Originally Posted by cerino2000

Well the obvious question that will be thrown is

"Did you remove the inner springs during break in?"

Yes

[cerino2000]

If I remember right, I thought I saw where most of the cam companies get their cam blanks from one (maybe two) sources. I wonder if the source didn't go with cheaper metals in the name of making more money and then learned that you get what you pay for. Rather than fess up to it they are just keeping it under tight raps to avoid the flak. Kinda like these new generic 4-wheelers you see so many places selling. They're made in China and I can tell for a fact that there is a reason they are cheaper. The steel that they use is absolute junk. My neighbor has one of them and it lasted a day. First jump he did the rear shock went right through the shock tower. Total speculation of course on the theory but in a world trend of company greed, I wouldn't put it past any company to do it in the name of corporate profit.