I concur! And Steve's input along with yours took me to school on this topic, for sure, lol! I love making INFORMED purchases!

 

No problem glad to do it. I hope people understand that just because a part is good for a race application, doesn't make it a good part to run in a daily driven engine. Some will be OK, but others would not last. Race engines are torn apart, checked and parts replaced as necessary all the time. If we can save weight in the parts and they will last long enough for the application at hand, they get used. As for Alpha lifters and directional lifters IMHO that falls into the marketing department side, not the engineering side of things. If you look at each and every lifter for a HD TC or M8 engine there is an undercut around the entire body of the lifter to allow the oil to enter into the lifter from the engine case bore, so turning the lifter such that the feed hole itself is pointing one way or the other is BS. If the oil system isn't feeding the proper amount of oil to the lifter, it's not going to matter which way its pointed.

Just putting an oil pressure gauge on the engine does not tell the story on a TC or M8 either. The pressure gauge needs to be installed in the lifter oil feed passageways to really see what's going on and that cannot be done unless there is special machining done to the engine case and on a TC it's a real bitch. The M8 is a bit easier but it still means machining of the engine case to do it. The best I can tell you all is to use a quality lifter and stay away from heavy racing type valve springs unless they are really needed, as they do put more wear and tear on the lifters. Keep your oil and filter changed at least once per season or at normal change intervals, if you hotrod it around then change them more often.