Help me understand this. I had a lifter fail about 600 miles after break in, and consequently flattened a cam lobe. I thought I followed all the proper break in procedures - soaked the lifters overnight in oil, lots of assembly lube, machine shop confirmed all my clearances to avoid coil bind, etc., started up and took the RPM up to 3000 for 20 minutes, proper break in oil, and performed a prompt oil change.
Here's the deal, though. The car ran great up until I did some minor servicing last week. I had the lower radiator hose off to address a minor leak and fitment adjustment, and when I topped off the coolant, added too much concentrate and threw off the ratio of antifreeze to water. After that the engine began running just a little warm - 210-230F after 25 minutes on the interstate. It was suggested that I had air in the system, so the plan was to burp it out. The next morning, I tried burping the air out with no recognizable success, but then I heard a ticking coming from the #1 cylinder area. I also pulled out a piece of RTV from the rad filler neck that had dislodged from the intake.
I drove it home from work, and the ticking remained, however the engine began missing a cylinder. By the time I made it home, the engine was running rough. I popped off the valve cover and found a limp rocker at #1 intake. Removed the intake, and the corresponding lobe on the cam was garbage.
Here's my question: I know it impossible for any of you to know for sure what exactly went wrong simply by reading this, but are there any clues here as to why the lifter (and ultimately cam) failed? Thanks for reading.
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