Summit Racing lifters

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dartfreak75

dartfreak75

Restore it, Dont part it!
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Hey guys I thought I'd open up a discussion here about summit lifters. I bought a set of them to run with my lunati cam but the other day was reading the breakin paperwork it says to use only lunati lifters or it voids the warranty. I'm gonna buy them and use them because I dont want to void my warranty. My topic for discussion is, Is this a marketing strategy for sales or are they really better? They are quite a bit more expensive I paid like 60 bucks with shipping for the summit ones. The lunati lifters are a little over 100 plus shipping. I'm gonna spend the money that's not a issue. 40 bucks extra is cheap insurance if the summit ones are crap! Has anyone ran the summit lifters before are they any good?
 
The cam companies recommend their own brand for a couple reasons:
1) to sell more
2) to prevent buyers from using some low buck/poor quality new lifter or even used lifters.

Putting a guarantee on a cam is risky business. A lot can happen between taking it out of the box and 1 year after break in.
 
dartfreak75 said:
Hey guys I thought I'd open up a discussion here about summit lifters. I bought a set of them to run with my lunati cam but the other day was reading the breakin paperwork it says to use only lunati lifters or it voids the warranty. I'm gonna buy them and use them because I dont want to void my warranty. My topic for discussion is, Is this a marketing strategy for sales or are they really better? They are quite a bit more expensive I paid like 60 bucks with shipping for the summit ones. The lunati lifters are a little over 100 plus shipping. I'm gonna spend the money that's not a issue. 40 bucks extra is cheap insurance if the summit ones are crap! Has anyone ran the summit lifters before are they any good?
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Which lifter are we talking about? P/N?
 
In this case I agree with Lunati. Not that you should run the same brand lifter, but that their Micro Trol lifters are the best on the market. I highly recommend them. Yes, they cost, but why do you want to cut THAT corner?

This is them.

Lunati Micro-Trol Hydraulic Lifters 71977-16
 
RustyRatRod said:
In this case I agree with Lunati. Not that you should run the same brand lifter, but that their Micro Trol lifters are the best on the market. I highly recommend them. Yes, they cost, but why do you want to cut THAT corner?

This is them.

Lunati Micro-Trol Hydraulic Lifters 71977-16
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Yea that is one area I do not want to cut corners for sure! That's why after reading that any other brand would void the warranty I was like ut oh I gotta order new lifters haha. Nothing to ruin your day like a rounded lobe or failed lifter in a 3k dollar motor!
 
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512Stroker said:
Which lifter are we talking about? P/N?
Click to expand...
These are the summit lifters I have. I posted them for sale on here

20200601_021521.jpg
 
I've been through 4 sets of lifters now. The first three sets had at least one lifter (usually more) which failed in short order. They would not stay pumped up immediately after shutdown (with the lifter on the base circle). I could collapse the suspect ones with one finger on the rocker adjuster.

My latest set are the lunati microtrol. They had plenty of give out of the box, but as soon as I primed the engine they were near impossible to compress. I was impressed. Plus, from a manufacturing standpoint they looked amazing. Great finishes with proper edge breaks, ground surfaces and surgically clean.
 
dartfreak75 said:
These are the summit lifters I have. I posted them for sale on here

View attachment 1715539737
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And there's not a thing wrong with those. In a mild application where you have plenty of lifter preload, you'll probably never have a minutes trouble. I prefer snap rings to chinsey wire retainers holding the lifter plungers in. But on something stock to very mild, they'll work well.
 
Krooser said:
Geez I just paid $12.80 each for solids....
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Could you run (banded) Dumbbells? I bought 12 NOS for a slant 6 marine app and asked for 4 more and they sent them for another few bucks....
 
The Lunati lifters should be American made Hylift Johnson.

The Summit lifters are Eaton’s, which are made in Mexico in the old Morestana factory.
 
I lost one lifter with the Lunati cam kit.
One day, one lifter did not pump up, bent a pushrod and trashed a rocker arm.
I guess every manufacture has issues.
 
sireland67 said:
I lost one lifter with the Lunati cam kit.
One day, one lifter did not pump up, bent a pushrod and trashed a rocker arm.
I guess every manufacture has issues.
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Ugh dont tell me that! You gonna make me nervous! Haha jk!
 
dartfreak75 said:
Ugh dont tell me that! You gonna make me nervous! Haha jk!
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It happened after break in.
It sat for a while before restart and just did not pump up.
I shut it off quick, could not feel any damage to the cam lobe, but after replacing the lifter, the engine to this day has a very faint tick.
Fresh rebuild with zero miles, good times.
 
sireland67 said:
I lost one lifter with the Lunati cam kit.
One day, one lifter did not pump up, bent a pushrod and trashed a rocker arm.
I guess every manufacture has issues.
Click to expand...

But was that the micro-trol’s? Lunati has two different lifters. Most cams come with their standard lifters which have the wire retainer. The micro-trols have a snap ring. I’ve had issues with the standard ones bleeding down.
 
pishta said:
Could you run (banded) Dumbbells? I bought 12 NOS for a slant 6 marine app and asked for 4 more and they sent them for another few bucks....
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You know I forgot about those dumbbell lifters and I like them since they are named after me.

I would be concerned in my application since one of the cams I have has a .616 exhaust lift and I may, eventually, try a 1.6 lifter. I chose these since they don't have the oil band.

Seems Comp, Crower, MP are all the same Johnson made bits.
 
72bluNblu said:
But was that the micro-trol’s? Lunati has two different lifters. Most cams come with their standard lifters which have the wire retainer. The micro-trols have a snap ring. I’ve had issues with the standard ones bleeding down.
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I was looking at their website the other day and they have 2 different micro trols part numbers too. One is 71977 and the other is 71977pr the pr ones are cheaper and are listed as performance replacements. Not sure what the difference in the two are?
 
Krooser said:
I would be concerned in my application since one of the cams I have has a .616 exhaust lift and I may, eventually, try a 1.6 lifter. I chose these since they don't have the oil band.

.
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oil band may not come into play as your max lift on a Mopar cam is set by the reduced base circle. not the lift of the lobe in relation to the top of the lifter bore. Now it may be exposed on the bottom but that is a stretch. Mic em and see how much lifter is exposed out the bottom of the bore resting on the cam base circle and Ill mic one I got and well see if it will work. That are not as cheap as they once were but another option.
 
Krooser said:
You know I forgot about those dumbbell lifters and I like them since they are named after me.

I would be concerned in my application since one of the cams I have has a .616 exhaust lift and I may, eventually, try a 1.6 lifter. I chose these since they don't have the oil band.

Seems Comp, Crower, MP are all the same Johnson made bits.
Click to expand...
I have seen lifters without an oil band.
Are they used so you do not expose the oil band in the lifter bore? Or is there some other purpose?
Pro's and Con's?
 
The first solid cam I ever used in my 440 was a Racer Brown STX-19 that I bought at a garage sale, still new in the box for $25, in like 1986. The date on the cam card was from 1972.

I bought some Milodon “light weight” solid lifters from PAW, which were the dumb bell style.
At the time I didn’t know they were just /6 lifters.

Anyway..... install the cam and lifters, Fire it up...... next to zero oil pressure..... under 5psi.

I don’t remember all the gory details about how the trouble shooting went, but somehow I arrived at thinking the lifters were the issue.
A friend of mine had some of the “normal” smooth body lifters, so I put them in.
Full oil pressure.

Apparently the base circle of the cam was reduced enough that the cut out of the lifter was allowing oil to escape out of the bottom of the lifter bore when on the base circle.
I never used that style lifter again.
 
dartfreak75 said:
I was looking at their website the other day and they have 2 different micro trols part numbers too. One is 71977 and the other is 71977pr the pr ones are cheaper and are listed as performance replacements. Not sure what the difference in the two are?
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71977PR are not micro-trols, those are just the "Performance Replacement" lifters they offer. That's the kind that comes with most of the their cam kits and has a wire retainer. Those are just the standard lifters, they may be "performance replacements" compared to stock but they're not high performance lifters.

The 71977's are the micro-trols, they have the c-clip retainers. They're the higher performance lifters
 
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