The rotating assembly went out for balancing so it's about time to look at some possible camshaft and timing set issues.
See the lobe that is below the lifter? Flat tappet cam cores are for the most part castings...and castings can have casting flash between the lobes. The manufacture should remove the flash between the lobes....sometimes this doesn't happen. This lobe is a potential lifter destroyer and could flatten the lobe itself. I have see where the casting flash doesn't get ground down as much as the lobe during the lobe grinding and because the lifter is wider than the lobe it hits that little flashing tit that sticks out to the left of the lobe. I've had to return two cams in the past years because of this defect.
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To see if this is going to be a problem with this cam we set the cam in the block and used a test lifter to see if the dial indicator would jump as the lifter past by the flash. No movement.....so we're good to go.
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After inspecting our cheapo $100 timing set we bought 6 years ago, we found that there were some burrs and proud metal between the rows of teeth on the cam gear. The timing chain was going to rub that crap off and deposit it into the engine oil....
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Using our trusty ol' fine tooth files and brass vise jaw inserts we carefully removed the burrs and proud metal.
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And we dropped the cleaned timing chain into a container of break-in oil to soak. Staying overnight in the oil bath and stirring it once in a while should get the chain safely pre-oiled. This chain will get really soaked because it going to set until the rotating assembly gets back from balancing later this week. I didn't soak one of my chains once and I ended up with a galled chain as stiff as a rusty bicycle chain after just a few dyno runs.
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