You know what I got thinking about last night was so incredible and I didn't even realize it at the time! Back in about 1981, I was a 13 year old who worked as a mechanic's helper in the summer and after school. The shop was small (3 of us usually, including me) and I earned a little under a dollar an hour. I bought my first car for a little under 4 weeks pay. I paid 150. Dollars for a 13 year old 'Honey' of a car (well, it was to me!). It was a 1968 Ford Fairlane and the shop owner was helping me get a 428 performance motor built for it. It was a running and drivable car but I didn't have a license yet, so I had time to build that motor. It had a 390 FE but everyone thought of that motor as non-performance or even as Junk! Well, Mr Daniel's let me get some of the stock parts on his NAPA account but No hi-po parts. I mainly wanted a cam, intake, Holley 4 barrel and headers. The cam and lifters had to be purchased first because the other things could be added later. Well, back then a performance camshaft was mostly a solid lifter deal unless you had one of the most popular engines (SBC, BBC and SBF). We found a nice cam profile for a FE Ford in the Comp cams catalog and it was a Solid lifter cam. I called Comp Cams and was talking to the guy about the cam and he said we had picked a good one for my combo. The next thing was the crazy part. I told him that I had saved about 110. dollars and didn't have enough for all of their parts (cam, lifters, lube and timing set. That was about 140 bucks! The man on the phone told me to save some more but I explained that the man who owned the shop said my motor was coming off the stand SOON! That man on the phone sold me the cam, two 'envelopes' of cam lube and a single row timing set for around 85 dollars. The cam alone listed for around 65 dollars. He said he was including the lube as samples (instead of buying a 'tub') and the timing set was strong 'enough'. I asked him about the lifters and he asked me if I had a pencil. I did and he gave me a part number and told me to get the NAPA store to order those. It was a Dorman part for Ford factory replacement solid lifters for a 427. He told me they would work alright and should cost around 20-25 bucks. They were perfect and we had found the adjustable factory rocker setup off a 428 Cobra Jet. They were rail mounted cast rockers that had an adjuster with a 'ball' end and one end of the pushrods was cupped for it. The machine shop shimmed up some valvesprings from God knows where when they did the valve job on the heads. They cut the heads about 70 thousandths to boost the compression, as well. As a kid, I didn't quite understand what it all really meant that these people were not trying to make the most money, as much as they were all helping a kid build his first motor. They were smarter than I thought. That man from Comp Cams bought a customer for life by telling me where to get lifters I could afford! I have put ONLY Comp Cams camshafts in every motor I have built since then (my motors are probably around 3 dozen)! A company would never consider doing something like that and wonder why they don't have 'Brand Loyal' customers.(?)! That car ran sweet with it's used iron intake and rebuilt used Holley and the exhaust note was perfect from a solid lifter cam motor through a set of 49.95 headers and a pair of Cherry Bomb glass packs! The factory rocker setup wasn't great. I had to adjust the lash every few weeks but that was alright. That was a great time in history and kids now hear about my pay and think it was bad. I want to see a kid buy a 2011 automobile for 4 weeks pay, nowadays! Ya'll Take Care, John

It would be nice if Comp Cams would actually make some flat tappet lifters that would last more than an hour of run time. That's right, I followed their instructions to the letter, by the numbers, used their cam lube, and I had a lifter wear about 9/16" off of it in an hour of total run time. 25 minutes of break in at 2000-2500 rpm. Shut it off, changed the break in oil and filter the next morning. Put in Valvoline VR oil designed for flat tappet lifters as it is high ZDDP zinc and a new filter, filled before threaded on. Cranked it up, started adjusting timing and mixture and valve noise started getting louder. Shut it off, pulled a valve cover and one lifter was killed, worn down that much. All the other lifters have zero convex to them and a sharp edge on the contact surface, on their way to failure. I had to take it down to a bare block. $$$ and a lot of labor. Never Comp Cams again.

My engine builder just put them in my 496 big block it's a 10 and 1/2 to 1 compression motor I have a comp 244/244@50 612 lift Magnum . We're running a dart oval port intake HP 950 Holly.... And massaged GM 049 large Oval Port heads..... Can't wait till we Dyno..... Through my research I'm hoping to see 660 we'll see can't wait 👍

Great show this week. Thanks for the good info 😉

sweet!! Looking good! Great info as always.

Those evolution lifters look impressive. I'm building a 400 sbc for strong street use. I'm not too concerned about it, but for the race guys who do... the question becomes since they are 18% thicker and have a cartridge how much weight does it add to the lifter compared to the conventional hydraulic roller?

New Comp hydraulic roller lifter setup in a Pontiac 400 cu in engine. A wheel on one of the lifters broke in two pieces, and the cam was ruined. That was last May. New parts are still unavailable from Comp.

Sounds like a good thing? What kind of air filter is that you had on that engine? & are you happy with it? I live in a very rural area & it gets pretty dusty around here witch the K&N filter takes a oil witch will clog up fast. Yours looked like it dousnt require oil? I like it??

Do you still have to run a bronze or melonized distributor gear with that cast roller?

Nice stuff looks good

Now that you've had them for a year what's your thoughts on these lifters and this cam? I have the same cam but my compression is up to 10:1 due to deck being cut, I could lower it to 9.6 with a thick head gasket or go with a bigger cam, they recommended the 276HR with my new compression... I have aluminum Brodix IK180 64cc heads, Comp 987 springs,Lunati Voodoo rockers(1.5). How have you like the cam and it's drive-ability? I have a heavier vehicle (88 Burb 6800gvrw), I'm running a Performer Air Gap(2601) and AVS2(1906), DUI ignition,. Thanks for any imput

I may have missed it but is that same tech in the flat tappet hydraulic lifters? or just for the rollers?

Brother, are the tie bars removable on the Evolution lifters? Looks like a torx or torx plus fastener...

Dang, I still need lifters for my gen 3 5.3. I cant afford the big names and I’m trying my best to avoid noisy lifters. Don’t even know if I should consider GM/Delphi ls7 replacements or summit brand. Been told to stay away from morel for the noise. Idk

Came in late on my lunch these can go into stock gen 1 400sbc ?

any update on these? how are they working out?

Good video, looking forward to see them go in the engine, do you have the Chevelle or El Camino anymore, got your stickers yesterday, i will send you a couple of mine thanks, do you prefer Bone or Brian, lol, later buddy

I realize I am a little behind on watching this video, but at 3:54 doesn't that look like rust in that new lifter? I have recieved rusty cam and lifters from this company before. J ust my thoughts. Suprised no one else mentioned it. Otherwise a good video.

I need 8 tappets for a 30 yo diesel engine (Westerbeke) but none can be found. Are there businesses that could/would make them for a relatively reasonable cost?

Just keep in mind everyone, alot of heat treating process is not legal in the US. Comp has never had a good record on warranties. I have used quite a few comp cams, I prefer Herbert, crane, or even howards, Elgin

Are these made of the Chinesium crap the rest of your stuff is made of

Would not touch any cam or lifter by Comp these days the way they are sending out junk.