One major factor on the life of a flat hydraulic is cranking time. If you don’t get the engine to fire very quickly the first time, like 3 or 4 revolutions, it’s likely going to kill the cam with today’s oils.
Come to think of it, it did take a few tries to get it to start because the timing wasn't quite right. Once it did start, we took it right up in RPM. I'm starting to think it was me who caused this failure.
