I just had a set of new Summit Lifters in my sbc 350. They were part of the Summit 1103 cam kit. All the lifters pumped up hard after pre-oiling the engine with a distributor drive. The lifter plungers would no longer depress. (pumped up solid).

I recently broke in an Iskendarian small Chevy cam with the expensive Iskendarian lifters, and break -in went good. I also put weak springs temporarily on the heads, and used Summit 30W break-in non-detergent oil. I block the oil filter bypass so if there is an issue, the bearings and crank are not damaged.

Use the side of another lifter to check for crown. We just built a stock small block chevy and we ordered Melling cam and melling lifters. They had a decent crown. Melling was a oem supplier.

lifters have to match the cam taper a .0015 taper is all that's needed, too much taper and you will have less contact area. if cam taper is .0015 in those lifters are fine, you cant just look at one side of the equation

You work with the precision of a guy trying to thread a needle wearing catcher's mitts on both hands.

Thank you so much. Im am tearing my 318 down now. In tha process of installing a summit cam and those very same lifters. Now ima mail it back to summit. I hear hughes cams are still made correct.

What happened to parts? I never had problems in the mid 90's with lifters!

I ruined the new cam in the break in process right out of the box. The problem is cam companies aren't making their own lifters. They are getting them from inferior companies. Mine was a comp cam. Supposedly the best in dirt track cams. Whipped out in 15 minutes.

Always wondered about the summit lifters, glad I never bought any after seeing that. My last comp cams cam/lifer kit used I checked the crown on the lifters and all of the lifters had quite a bit of a crown to them, no problems out of them either.

I can't wait until the Coated Lifters come out.

I got the same lifters from a jegs kit. They are made by elgin. I pulled the motor after 25 miles for a rear main seal that was too long (another problem) and one of the lifters had a stripe starting to wear on the face. Glad I caught it now. This is a epidemic