well , i have many issues with my professionally built motor, and i've determined that i will have to fix these problems myself if i want them done right.

the motor is a 95 lt1, stroked to 383, full roller valve train.

i drove it for about 6 months, give or take, and everything seemed normal. i took the truck to FL and back in about 4 days (i live in CT) on the way back up, i noticed some problems. it was ticking , and then it got worse. really loud. i drove it over to the engine builders shop, and apparently i blew a lifter. he said it was because i never adjusted the rockers, and that needs to be done often. i was under the influence if you hae polylocks, you should be good. so i say, ok, whatever, i'll adjust them from now on. problem is, i can;t rev over 5500 without blowing the caps off the lifters. they are stock lifters, and they were from the begining. why the HELL would you use stock lifters on a full race motor?? i've been doing a lot of reading this evening about people having the same problems as i'm having, but i'm still confused. he's telling me that i need a solid lifter cam/lifter package if i want to rev to 6500 like i want. sounds fishy to me. and i'm sure as hell not dumping another 1k into this thing to have him do it. so i need some answers.

should i stick with a roller setup like i have, jsut maybe get some stronger lifters? i think the springs may be stronger than stock, i'll have to do some research.

a roller valve train should handle 6500 with no prob right?

if i do switch to a solid lifter setup, will i loose a bunch of hp?

any sugestions on roller cam setups that will pass smog?

 

What cam and valvetrain are you running?

It sounds like maybe you are setting the lash too tight. The more preload past zero lash, the lower the max RPM will be before you start to float the valves. I set my stock lifters 1/6th turn past zero lash and have no problems hitting 6k rpm.

 

People are spinning hydrolic lifters upwards to 7K (and probably past in some cases) RPM.
Need more info on the setup though. However with polylocks you should not have to adjust valves for very long periods of time.
Not sure what you mean by caps coming off the lifters?

 

Stay with the hyd roller's and put a new set of stock lifter's in it. DO NOT put Comp "R" lifters in it they are having problems with them.
If a lock came loose on the highway,that is why the lifter came apart,so it's not the stock lifter's fault,they will take you to 500+HP and 7000RPM's.
Solid roller on a high mileage street car is a very high maint item.Ya will have the lifters out for rebuild every 5000 miles and valve adj about the same time.That is if ya don't have the Crower or Isky pressure lubed rollers. Any other will be broke and wipe out a cam in a few thousand miles and that means pull the engine and wash all the metal out(if you shut down immediately) or a rebuild.

When ya set the valves tighten the poly lock allen set screw and then bump the adj wrench with your hand in tightening rotation to tighten them more,a couple of pretty good bumps will do if they seem tight.

 

unfortunately i don't know i never got the cam specs from the builder. he's kind of a "small town" operation. does a few bush north motors from what i know. looking at my recipt, this is all i can decipher for now.
hardened pushrods
arp 7/176 studs
some sort of guide plates
these are my rockers :
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...h.asp&N=400078
lifters:
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...h.asp&N=400078
cam bearings
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...h.asp&N=400078
and this is unfortunately what i find when i search my cam #'s
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...h.asp&N=400078

grrrrr. i wish i could get those specs
if i remember correctly, i requested that i go a little more "camy" than the lt4 hotcam kit. i'm guessing that it's around .550 for the lift, 12* centerline i know for sure, and i remember somehting about 212/214 duration. not positive on that though.

i'm about 95 % sure that the rockers are set correctly. i set them exactly as described .

i'm 99% sure that i am not overtighening the polylocks, and i've had the builder do them twice before i did them

 

oh, btw, there are stock lifters in there now , i think they were all replaced a few months ago when i brought it down again.

 

the retaining ring thingy on the top shatters (i wanted to use the technical term )

also, another thing, i noticed when i set my lash last time, that it seemed like the passenger side was not getting any oil coming out of the pushrods. i let it un for at least a minute before i shut it down. how does the oil get to the lifters? is it possibile that it's getting blocked before then, jsut for that side? pardon my stupid question, i've been working on engines for almost 10 years, and never really cared to take a good look at how the internal oiling takes place..lol. guess it's time to learn