I am doing an intake and cam swap, I have a lifter tap now so I figure I will replace the lifters as well. What should I use? Most of the stock L98's I have ever heard have a lifter tap, does someone offer a better product than a stock lifter?

 

Well the 87 L98 is a hydraulic roller cam. engine, so there should be NO lifter noise. "Most of the stock L98's I have ever heard have a lifter tap". Unless you've run into a particularly bad batch of L98's, I doubt this is what you are hearing. My 87 Corvette made no abnormal lifter noise.
Anyway, to answer your question, yes, most of the cam. manufacture make roller lifters and other components to go with their cams.

 

Well I'm using a TPIS ZZ409 cam, they recommended stock lifters. But I am sure that it was lifter tap, as it increases with RPM. Carbon deposits form inside the lifter and cause a tap, virtually every L98 I have ever heard had the same tap. I am just looking for a better product that stock. And wasn't sure whats out there?

 

i have some self centering ones to keep from having any float kinda nice i like them

 

There are basically 4 types of lifters out there.

#1 Flat tappet lifters. They are flat on the bottom and do not have a roller bearing on them. They were used in pre 87 engines I believe and not very common after 87 but I don't exactly remember.

#2 Hydraulic Roller lifters. These are what you have in your engine, and what you need to replace the old set with.

#3 Rhodes style lifters. These are made for both the Flat tappet and Hydraulic roller lifters. They act much different though. They have a different sized hole for oil to travel through them operating their hydraulic mechanism. The larger hole allows them to pump up very quickly as oil pressure increases and they bleed down very quickly while at idle so that your can seems a bit smaller than it is, usually leads to better idleing when you have a huge cam. These lifters are kind of controversial from my readings, some like them some don't. They're normally called Comp-R lifters. I have a set, can't say as I like or dislike them. They're noiser than stock lifters.

#4 Solid Roller lifters. They have no dampening motion whatsoever. I.E. no hydraulic plunger in the center of the lifter, hence "Solid Roller".

As you can see, I didn't mention that there were different grades of liftrers. Why you might ask? because most of them that are made for Comp Cams, Crane Cams, Lunati, GM, Ford etc. are all made at the same place. Just assembled a little differently sometimes but guess what. They're all entirely the same. Spend your money elsewhere.

 

You are most likely hearing the fuel injectors. They do seem very loud on the L98 for some reason.

 

i have comp cams 850-16 replacement OEM style lifter and im pleased with them. a friend of mine has the same lifter.