Hydraulic lifters

"...Go back five years ago and there were a bunch of U.S. companies making flat-tappet lifters -- Eaton, Delphi [GM], Stanadyne, and Hylift [Johnson]. Within about a three-month window, two out of the four went out of business. Eaton decided it no longer wanted to be in the flat-tappet business --there was no volume -- and it sold out to Stanadyne, which initially added no capacity and in fact shut Eaton's line down. Hylift -- the premiere supplier of Johnson lifters to major cam companies as well as aftermarket suppliers such as Federal-Mogul -- went through one of those corporate scandals we've sadly become all too familiar with before going bankrupt...Major cam companies, including Comp and Crane, maintain that they never sacrificed lifter quality or sold inferior lifters. "We figured we were better off selling nothing than selling junk," says Crane's Chase Knight. Yet some engine builders insist there was a definite durability difference in lifters produced prior to '01 compared to some later production runs. At present, GM continues in business with a good lifter, Stanadyne has finally geared up again (it currently has about 70 percent of the lifter market), and Johnson is back in business. But the off shore stuff still permeates the market, and many budget hot rodders are tempted to use them even on name-brand cams because the price is so low compared to the quality U.S.-made parts. Unfortunately, without lifter disassembly, it's nearly impossible for the average hot rodder to identify its manufacturer -- and, hence, its quality. One exception is genuine GM/ACDelco/Delphi tappets...."