I am not sure what component you speak of here.... " It isn't uncommon for the rollers to fail on the new pushrods" Also. "frosting" on the cam lobes does not mean the parts are ready to grenade. It is considered acceptable. Grooves, marring, metal transfer and galling would be considered UN acceptable and would need to be replaced.

I did read his quote, I was referring to your quote, about tearing into the camchest for a simple lifter replacement. Harley has also had a couple of revisions, if not suppliers of lifters since 2007. Anything mechanical can fail at some time or another . It doesn't mean that every Harley motor is going to check out with a lifter issue. The majority of them will be just fine. Don't worry....be happy!

 

You should just purchase the big bore kit, it comes with new lifters, bearings, gaskets and the like. If you going to do it, do it right! You won't be sorry!

 

If you don't worry and are happy with lifters that rattle like crazy every morning, keep smiling. Me, I ain't happy with a bike that sounds like a tin can full of rocks rattling at me every morning. My point was that my lifters were bleeding down and rattling in less than 10.000 miles in my last 2 Harleys. "Frosting" is when both the cam lobe and lifter roller have transferred metal to each other and of course into the oil that lubricated them. My S&S Premium lifters and Dave Mackie cams looked great after 40,000 miles. The rollers and their axle's on Harley's cheap, off shore sourced, lifters are know to fail and result in a catastrophe. I would equate it to changing out the old spring loaded cam chain tensioners in the pre '06 Dynas and '07 Harleys. Strangely, the lifters in those early twin cams were good lifters. Sure some people will ride many thousands of miles with no problem. I just feel that those lifters are of marginal quality, are prone to rattle, and if they fail they can lunch the whole motor. I voided my warranty and installed a good cam with a great set of lifters, and ride off grinning every day!

 

Well , I doubt you could get the cams out without unloading the pressure on the lifters from the valve springs anyway. And if you could, you might damage something else in the process. But I don't believe there is any reason to open the cam chest if you aren't going to upgrade the cam and bearing while there. And then, you would need a tuner too.

On earlier single cam engines, Shovelhead and EVO, the pinion shaft / gear prevented the lifters from being removed from the bottom. I've never tried it on a Twin cam, but I suspect it is similar too. And either way, you will need to unload the pressure on the lifters which means pulling the rocker boxes or cutting the pushrods form the bottom and replacing with the quick install type adjustable pushrods.

At 10k miles, I wouldn't be too concerned about a lifter failing, I know of people with 20k plus with no problems on a stock cam. As mentioned above, if it starts to clack for a moment when started cold, it's time to look at that and replace lifters after a good diagnosis. And then, use the S&S or Hylift US made lifters.

Paul

 

I just checked and the M8s use the same "C" lifters that the later Twin Cams used. Many believe these lifters to be a weak spot...

In my Twin Cams, I wouldn't make a trip into the cam chest just to replace those lifters if they weren't making noise. If I went into the cam chest for any other reason, both the lifters and inner cam bearings were replaced, but I never made the trip into the cam chest just for the lifters as preventative maintenance ..

I would suggest the same for an M8...

As a side thought, whenever I replaced the lifters, I never replace them with another HD lifter. I use the Johnson Hylift lifters from WFO Larry...

 

If there is no issue with the lifters better to just leave them alone I have had replaced with SE ones and went back to OE due to excessive noise. New M8 filter and HD oil works very good with my M8 IMO. My lifters were noisy before again IMO because I was using Castrol V Twin synthetic switched to HD oil and M8 filter it runs great.