Questions on Reusing Cam and Lifters

The engine is disassembled, parts are at the machinist, and I'm doing some research to get ready for the engine build. I'm considering my options for a cam. One option would be to reuse the cam and lifters that cam out of the engine. So, I have two questions (for now):

1. Can I reuse the cam and lifters that came out of the engine? It's an hydraulic flat tappet cam and I marked the lifters so I know which lifter was on which lobe. It seems reasonable to me that I can reuse them, but I figured I'd be safe and ask the question.
2. If I can reuse the cam and lifters, would the engine break in be the same as if I had a roller cam since the cam and lifters have already been broken in on the previous engine?

Thanks,

Jim

 

There is no problem doing this. However lifters are mini dumpsters- if you has some failure that contaminated the oil, then they at least need to be taken apart and cleaned very thoroughly or just replace them. It's good practice to clean them anyway even if there was no failure, but not every one does.

 

Sure, just look them over good and check for concave lifters. If you plan on revving more than 5500 I prefer c-clip retainers rather than the paper clips ones.

 

Clean em out if you feel comfortable disassembling them.
Yes you can reuse them as you described, they’ll never know they were removed

 

Jim
If you liked the way it performed run it.Like they stated above disassemble clean and inspect especially if you buy new ones.
Chris

 

1. Inspect the bottoms for wear. Except for Nailhead engines, lifters should have some "crown" to the bottoms. No crown--junk lifter. If the bottoms are scored, or concave, they're junk. If a lifter is scrap...so is the camshaft.

2. Disassemble and clean them ONE AT A TIME. Do NOT mix-and-match parts from one lifter to another, in particular the main body and the plunger. Hydraulic lifters are like tiny oil filters. The oil pathway into the lifter is fairly huge, the oil pathway out of the lifter is microscopic. Debris gets in, can't get back out.

 

Yah not that hard to clean. As someone said, one at a time. I labeled pill bottles 1 to 16 and cleaned and recoiled each.

 

Thanks for all the replies!

 

Well, I won't be using the old cam. I took a close look at it the other day. It has several flattened lobes. My guess is it happened when the previous owner had the engine built/broken in.

The positive - The car went 12.27 with a wiped out cam, head gasket issues, and me shifting at 5200 (because I didn't know any better). I'm looking forward to how the car will run after the build.

 

Now you can pick a cam you want instead of being stuck with that one. Even if you liked it, you can explore options.