Well this one lasted 50k miles.. maybe further never really kept track. Been in my daily driver since 01. It's a comp 262 XE. Noticed a couple weeks ago that the valve train seemed a little noisier, always been noisy anyway. Then Monday on the way to work it was louder yet and started missing. Limped it home but oil pressure had dropped from 60psi hot to 40psi. Just pulled the cam out today. 10 lobes flat or very worn, several severly cupped lifters. All lobes show some wear. Motor is clean as a whistle inside and all the rockers/pushrods look good. I've been running mobil 1 in it for at least the last 25k miles, before that I used standard valvoline. I almost added a can of red stp last time but I noticed the mobil jug was marked SL still, so I left it out. I'm thinking its a combination of oil additives and the OD trans I put in 8 months ago. I'm only turning 13-1400 rpm @60mph now. Figure not much oil splash going on there. The blocks never had a history of eating cams. The original lasted 250k+ in it.

Looks like an overhaul and a new voodoo cam in my future. Wish I could afford a retro roller.

Why not just install a retro roller now and run the block the way it is? Then rebuild the engine later on down the road and you can reuse the retro roller.

Yep, it sounds like roller cams are going to be a common place for all of us in the near future due to the modern oil that is being sold.

>> "It's a comp 262 XE."

How did I know?

When we buy cams we order them on a P-55 cores and we only use GM lifters that have the hard bottoms P/N 5232720 and we have our customers use the Brad Penn oil http://www.bradpennracing.com/ on the street performance engines and on the circle track engines we build 98% of them are solid and hyd. flat tappet cams and they have been using the AMSOIL 20/50 with zero problems.

I can say we have never lost a cam or lifters in all the years I have been doing this.

And I posted a while ago that Mobil-1 has changed there formular and its not recommended for flat tapeet cams as I have a friend that builds circle track engines that forund this out the hard way.

The lifters I used were stanadyne. Only the ones on the very worst lobes were cupped. Some of the worn lobes had lifters that really didnt show that much wear. So I think the lifters were good. The worst lobes also looked like the lifter had quit spinning. I assume thats probably something that happened after some wear had allready occurred, or the cam would have worn out long ago.

any chance you could have the cam tested for hardness, post the number here?

any chance you could have the cam tested for hardness, post the number here?


Willing but not sure where i'd have that done?

Here's a couple of pics. First is the worst 3 lifters. These are the ones that actually look like they quit spinning.

http://home.centurytel.net/chevymads_stuff/lifters.jpg

And one of the cam.

http://home.centurytel.net/chevymads_stuff/cam.jpg

You can see the bottoms of a few of the other lifters in that pic. Not a whole lotta wear on the rest of the lifters. Yet nearly every lobe shows at least some wear.

Just got the motor out and pulled a couple of bearings. Not good. The pan was full of metallic grit and so was the oil pump pickup. Bearings have had alot of grit go through them too, though they're not in the bronze yet. They are scored and rough. Looks like a rebuild.

had the same thing happen with the comp 268XE TWICE. finally went with the voodoo 268 in both the big blocks, no problems yet (and hopefully never). plus they're much quieter.

i dont know how many comps ive heard of going bad.... jeeez

I have already been through this and it stinks. I never wanted this to happen again, so I went with roller cam this time. Now I can use whatever oil I want and not worry about it.

I lost a comp 270 extreme 6 weeks ago. I went with a voodoo. Much better throttle response and midrange, It's quieter too.

I bought the cam, lifters, springs and retainers. Its been holding up so far.

oil pressure had dropped from 60psi hot to 40psi

Just got the motor out and pulled a couple of bearings. Not good. The pan was full of metallic grit and so was the oil pump pickup. Bearings have had alot of grit go through them too, though they're not in the bronze yet. They are scored and rough. Looks like a rebuild.

Probably bad cam bearings as well.

Swapped out my street rod engine for a ZZ4. The old engine had about 30k on it with COMP 270 Magnum. Some of the lifters show sign of wear and most lobes "look" like they're ready to go. Looks like I did this just in time. I'll use roller on the rebuild (for the next project). It was broken in with EOS and used Penzoil 10W30 for its life.

I put a 2.56-1 12 bolt in our 350 el Camino. Driving normally the engine is rarely over 2K rpm. This type of running might be where a high volume pump is needed the most.

Motor is back together now.. voodoo this time. I hope it holds together or it won't be a gen 1 anymore. Just too much money to go to roller without going to a LS style motor next. It did get completley disassembled and brushed out, with new cam, main, and rod bearings. Crank is decent, but I wish it was a hair smoother.. like it was when i originally did it.

Man that kind of **** is what scares me is when it's time for me to start my engine up!:( ill have to get all good and drunk before i turn the key! :beers: