Is it normal practice to replace the lifters when you do a cam swap ? I see the posts regarding stock/adjustable pushrods but rarely see anyone talk about replacing the lifters. Can some of these new cam noises possibly come from the mating of the lifters/cams ? Just wondering if I need to figure lifters into the $$ equation ???

 

Lifters are cheap. I'd replace them if you're going in there anyways, and have more than a few thousand miles on the bike..

 

I replaced mine but my stockers had about 17,000 miles on them. Most people I spoke with said I'd probably be OK to leave them but they would change them if it were their bike. I changed them. Now if the bike had 5,000 miles? Probably not.

 

Andrews told me that if I had over 10K to change them. I had about 6500 and changed them anyway..

 

At 25k I didn't change the lifters when I did my cam job. A retired friend is a top-tier tech who rebuilds antique-car and race engines for kicks--and he didn't change his at 60k miles in his '00 EGC. He claims they are the same lifters used in many GM cars and trucks and rarely give trouble even in high-mileage vehicles. There were problems with the old small-axle lifters that were installed in Harleys up to the mid-90's, but I've heard of very few or no lifter problems since the big-axle lifters were introduced. Another friend is a tech at the local HD shop and tells me they see very few lifter problems even in high-mileage bikes, and that the few problems were apparently related to specific lifters rather than mileage.

There is no problem putting new or even used cams from another engine with used lifters, as there is little or no wear pattern with roller lifters. If it makes you feel better to change them it won't hurt, of course, but I feel it is unnecessary in most cases.

 

Yeah, some seem to relate or confuse these lifters with flat tappets in some car applications that need to be "broken in at 2000 rpm for 20 minutes". That was kind of the case with me. I replaced mine thinking there would be wear specific patterns with the cam lobe and specific lifter. After opening the box of new lifters.... These roller units are really nice and provide next to zero wear on the cams. Oh well, at least I have a fresh set of lifters that I won't have to think about for a while.

 

Might as well change them as they are cheap and you are already in the cam case.

 

Yeah, you're good for a while, for sure--and like I said, it won't hurt to change them. FWIW to others who will change their lifters, the HD "B" lifters can be purchased under the manufacturer's name for much less. The Crane 10530 for a small-block Chevy are reportedly the identical part, and someone on this forum once called Crane for a verification. I understand you can buy four of these for about $50, much more if packaged from HD.

 

I think I got my 4 from one of the online shops for about $92 IIRC. Of course I read that info about the Crane lifters after I bought and installed the HD ones. Not to mention that my brother works for a parts supplier and might have been able to get me a deal on them. Oh well.... again. I wonder if you can buy just 4 from Crane or if they would make you buy a set of 16? Even if they did, a person could probably sell the extras in sets of 4 here or on ebay even. Hmmmm....

 

A good rule of thumb is to replace the lifters when you replace the cam. I would invest i a set of nice adjustable pushrods too. No the quick fit type. Your gonna have it all apart anyway. The service manual says to replace the lifters every 20k anyway. Although I'm a little skeptical of that, I wouldn't go to the trouble of replacing lifters unless they were making some noise.