The Shane Kelley Lifter prep

[Cudajason]

I thought I would document this process for anyone that wants to give it ago.

Tonight I started the process the pic below shows on lifter as deliverd and one sanded with 1000 grit.

I have the sandpaper sitting on piece of sheet metal to make sure its flat.

To get it to this point only took a min or two.

My one tip is to use some sort of lubricant on the sandpaper. 1000 grit is typically wet dry paper and when dry will fill up pretty quickly. I did not want to use oil so I sprayed it with a bit of WD 40. Seemed to work ok.

I am going to try and get through all the lifters tomorrow night.

Jason

[headejm]

Shane is famous now! 

[Cudajason]

Shane is famous now! 

I thought @Shane Kelley was already famous around here! 

Jason

[Chryco Psycho]

Makes sense & anything to prevent cam failures is a good thing 

[Cudajason]

Sigh...my life is crazy, this is the first day since I started this thread!!!!


Here is a pic of the step 2...sanded with 2000 grit (Shane recommended 1500, but the store did not have any so I went with 2000).

Its a very subtle difference.

Jason

[Cudajason]

All polished up and ready to be cleaned lubed and installed!!

[Jay Bee]

A link to the "Shane Kelley Lifter prep" detailed explanation for those that may have missed it.
https://forum.e-bodies.org/engine-transmission-and-rear-end/4/engine-break-in-procudure/1053/msg86720#msg86720

[Brads70]

    Hurry up and get those wrenches flying , this rain we are having all weekend will wash all the salt and crap off the roads , making way for this...  

[HP2]

Hmm, what impact does all this sanding have on the crown that is ground into the lifter base? A flat tappet is designed to rotate in its bore and it you sand it enough to remove that crown, what does that do for longevity of the lifter?

[Strawdawg]

Hmm, what impact does all this sanding have on the crown that is ground into the lifter base? A flat tappet is designed to rotate in its bore and it you sand it enough to remove that crown, what does that do for longevity of the lifter?

I'm with you on this one.  I think there may be potentially more down side problems than upsides when doing this. 

[Chryco Psycho]

Actually in most engine the lobes are not centered under the lifter so the lifter runs on the side of the lobe which is also tapered , this causes the lifter to rotate & only goes to full contact at the top of the lobe where the spring pressure is the highest .

[Strawdawg]

Further to HP2's comments regarding not wanting to reduce the convex bottom of the lifter any, it's not desireable to remove any of the hardening on the the bottom either.  Back when flat tappet cam installs were failing left and right, more failures were due to imported lifters that were poorly machined and which had no hardening done to them rather than oil failures.  When Johnson started making lifters again, I suspect the decline in failures was more due to quality lifters than oil content when dealing with streetable engines.

[dodj]

Hmm, what impact does all this sanding have on the crown that is ground into the lifter base? A flat tappet is designed to rotate in its bore and it you sand it enough to remove that crown, what does that do for longevity of the lifter?

I'm with you on this one.  I think there may be potentially more down side problems than upsides when doing this. 

I'm willing to bet that the 1000/2000 grit doesn't really take off significant metal, but I could be wrong.

I tend to agree with HP and strawdawg about potential pitfalls.  I thought about the cross hatching in cylinder bores that aid in oil retention. Would the machining marks on the bottom of the lifter accomplish the same thing to help the lifter?

[jimynick]

Hmm, what impact does all this sanding have on the crown that is ground into the lifter base? A flat tappet is designed to rotate in its bore and it you sand it enough to remove that crown, what does that do for longevity of the lifter?

You beat me to it! No crown, no rotation and that may be the death knell for a lifter IMHO. The least I would do is carefully watch the push rod for rotation when it starts. I´m with the polishing of the surface. but flattening the base MAY be an issue. Just sayin´and not trying to be a downer here. Perhaps better to use a buffer with compound to shine and not abrade?

[Brads70]

I polished mine so much they looked like this .......