Billet cams and lifter supply

[Gary Parker]

Heres my 2 cents.. I lost a motor at the beginning of 2022. A shubeck lifter broke. That did in the whole short block. Now I am trying to get the motor done for 2023. I have made many calls and talked with people who make lifters. The best one I talked to was a man at Howard Cams. He explained they could not get Trend tool steel lifters to sell. They did have them advertised for $699.00 Talked to Trend and yes $2400.00 and a year wait. The man from Howards explainded the company the made lifter cups went out of buisness at the start of Covid. I wrote NHRA tech department and tried to explain my position... No lifters...Yes I did ask about alowing rollers. Not because I wanted to gain performance but I wanted to race. They are in so many stockers with roler lifters now.... But they did not go for it..

[bubski]

Bubski’s thinking !! It sure would be more cost effective and in the spirit of stock eliminator rules to go back to the valve spring rule and forget about all of this nonsense with exotic materials and changing the rules to be closer to SS !! How can it be possibly cheaper to redesign your entire valve train ?? All that needs to be done is go back to what used to work in Stock !! Why can’t change ever go backwards to what worked previously ?? Why does change always move toward more problems and expense ??

[john ancona]

Originally Posted by SDT1DYI

John, I thought you were going with to race SS GT class with a 350 2 barrel?
How about a 5 HP penalty for Roller cam in stock?
If a change to Roller Cams is made then change the piston rings to what ever rings you want. Spacers are get expensive as well. Oh and then for low compression motors how about making pump gas legal in stock as well. Could save some money there as well. .

Steve Teeter Stk/SS 620

Yep still going with the 350 2 barrel that is if there's still a track left in town LoL

[Larry Hill]

Y’all get the rules fix and we will try to live by them.

[Terry Cain]

Originally Posted by SDT1DYI

John, I thought you were going with to race SS GT class with a 350 2 barrel?
How about a 5 HP penalty for Roller cam in stock?
If a change to Roller Cams is made then change the piston rings to what ever rings you want. Spacers are get expensive as well. Oh and then for low compression motors how about making pump gas legal in stock as well. Could save some money there as well. .

Steve Teeter Stk/SS 620

I like the pump gas idea.

[1347]

Originally Posted by Terry Cain

I like the pump gas idea.

I think the biggest problem would be fuel check.

[Mike Gray]

Originally Posted by john ancona

Oh only a 6 months, it's now over a year now I have been waiting , so I did what all the (one more change to stock) Guy's are saying ,I built a Super stock engine to run in the mean time with the $ 650.00 dollar roller lifters while I wait for the what I think will be the $1400.00 to $ 2400.00 set . Lol

17 months for me and still no lifters, can’t finish the car anyway because it’s been in the paint shop for over a year. ( they have labor shortage also) At least the slow pace has spread out my spending and the wife doesn’t notice too much. I’m not getting any younger and I still hope I can go racing when this thing is finished!

[Greg Reimer 7376]

In the early-mid 1980's I worked for the Los Angeles County Mechanical Department, and the cars the Sheriff's department had were '77-78 Novas, 79-83 Chevy Malibus, and they had Chevy trucks and vans.Other County departments had various Chevy and Dodge trucks as well. Around 1981-82,we had an absolute epidemic of flat camshafts in all those various engines, predominantly the 305 Chevys,not too much with the Dodges. We tried various things, but it still was a very common experience. We were searching for an answer, tried various brands of lifters and oils, but the issue continued almost unabated. Along about the early 90's the steel roller cam with hydraulic roller lifters came out, and the problem vanished. At the time, that was when the zinc additive disappeared from the various brands of oils and that was when all this started. Now, the issues we are being confronted with probably more than anything else are supply problems. It's maddening to be told that the goods you ordered for a thousand or more dollars are back ordered because the vendor doesn't want to lose the sale so he takes your money and tosses your order at the bottom of the pile.Not a good way to ensure repeat business, but I guess the modern business culture doesn't care about that.

[Dan Bennett]

I used to work on a Pro Stock team using Jenkins power. He told me that his main criteria for oil was a high zinc level.