Lifter Failure

well this is what i think based on what i have done and what i have read

i clean the cam, use the red torco stuff and check they all spin by drawing lines in white paint on my pushrods....+ luck. I build a motor about once in 5-10 years so not a lot
but i'm careful......

zddp isn't a lube, its a chemical coating that increases friction, but protects while its doing so. Its the phosphorus bit chemically bonding onto steel and iron parts in layers. Each bit of friction against it takes the surface off it, leaving a base for the next coating. like shaving some velvet.... and it miraculously re growing its velvety texture, underneath the coating the lifter face is work hardening. you need to hit a different section of the lifter face each time to allow the coating to coat back.

a great ZDDP package in an oil can be made worthless by the detergent package in the oil. The detergent package is another bunch of chemicals, sodium and magnesium compounds etc they can dick about with the phosphorus in the ZDDP and ruin its ZDDP additive like benefits.

Your cam and lifters come from the factory with some crappy waxy oily coating on them to stop them rusting in the package.. clean it off with brake cleaner, otherwise, what is it doing in respect to the zddp coating, or your assembly lube. it is tenacious stuff

the ZDDP additive packages you can buy. You are pouring in a pint of what? into your carefully formulated oil? they list the active ingredients on the additive bottle, but what is the rest of that gloop, paraffin? diesel? cheap base oil? and what does it do to your "good" oil.

If ZDDP coats stuff, its gonna coat stuff i.e the inside of the lifter bore the outside of the lifter body and on a hydraulic lifter the surfaces of the pump up piston inside... too much can be a bad thing, this stuff increases friction, that is not appropriate everywhere.
in high volume it will coat on thick, like paint, that might not be a good thing....

i could be wrong, i could be right.... :)

Dave