ok here is my original question and what has happened since tearing into the motor sorry this is lengthy but bare with me :
i think i have a bad lifter but wanted some input to see if I was on the right path before I put more mileage on my wrenches. Ok here is what i have. its a 1978 351m block bored 60 over with 400 balanced crank forged pistons and rods 10.5 to 1 compression crane roller rockers and pedistal adapter kit 292 comp cam with matching lifters and springs 9.5 inch push rods head planing very minamal just enough to ensure that they were square. ported polished and I believe the valve size is 2.17 or 2.19 on the intake i had a dual plane performer intake but now have single plain streetmaster and I like the streetmaster way better by the way, very noticeable difference but had the popping on the other intake also and on top the streetmaster I have a 750 holley double pumper four corner idle mechanical choke and secondaries I'm using the accel 300+ ingnition system and matching billet proof distrib spiral core wires and accel plugs then switched to platnums no noticeable change between the two. I think thats about it.
so here is the problem i have a intermittant miss its really strange it comes and goes and when powering into it, in the slightly above mid to upper range i have a pop and stumble .changed plugs and checked wires all working but a few weeks ago one of my rockers studds was loose and i bent a pushrod but it wasnt real loose i'm sort of thinking it was an after affect of a collpsed lifter I replaced pushrod and readjusted the valves and moved that lifter to another cylander everything is adjusted properly but I still have a lifter tick at idle and the pop . I took it apart today and did have 2 collapsed lifters but there is a slight flat spot on the cam. I replaced the lifters but one of them; which is a comp cams lifter that matches the rest doesnt come up quite as far as the others its almost a 1/16 inch difference, it does go up and down smoothly with no jumps or any abnormal movement; My question is, can i adjust for the difference or will i risk further damage? advice is greatly appreciated oh the original cause of this problem was the lifter was stuck down when i adjusted the valves and after starting it it pumped up and well something had to give.

 

If you have the cash I would say replace the cam and the lifters. It might save you some trouble in the long run. Also go ahead and re-torque all your rocker arms, if you haven't done so already.

Sanders

 

You have the crane adapter kit for the pedestals? If so I fould the best way to adjust the valves on my 460 was when the intake was off watch the lifter for when it would start to give then 1/4 or 1/2 turn. Worked great. Didn't have to have em pumped up or such.

I'd definetly replace that cam and lifters and possible the push rods since hard telling if any others might be hurt. Had a 351 w bent a pushrod once. Replaced it and never another problem but if it's already apart it's cheap insurance.

And yeah overtight valve train will cause that poping since the valve won't fully close so you get pressure in the intake track or exhaust depending on the valve that's too tight. Good luck with it and let us know how it turns out.

 

also wanted to add this motor has barely over 100 miles on it but sat for a couple years but the motor wasnt seated yet when parked so sit shouldnt have hurt it I've put the 100 miles on it recently. It had only been started and tuned a little before parking. I will be contacting comp cams and they are gonna love hearing from me i bet. oh and thanks for the advice. i'm gonna see what comp cams has to say before i do anything i imagine. they dont carry these lifters anymore and i think i see why now but they were supose to be made for the came. an expensive lesson i rather would not have learned

 

did you have the valve springs installed by a shop? did they check for coil bind clearance at full valve lift? .560" is a lot for 351M heads without machine work on the spring seats. just a guess but you might've crashed the valvesprings?

 

yes i had a very good machinist do my head work for me i can double check but he is very experienced in racing applications and I would be actually shocked if he did a less than excellent job but to error is human so its worth looking into. thanks for the idea and I'll post an update when i'm sure about that. but as of now I have one bad lobe and small metal shavings in the pan so I'm considering pulling the motor to do complete disassemble and flush. because my pistons alone were almost 1200 bucks several years ago probably higher now but the sad part is i only have a little over a hundred miles on all the parts in this motor. so at this point I am already sorry so i will play it safe so I wont be more sorry. but if this means anything ive watched all the rocker arms in motion and I saw nothing suspicious they are the double spring set up designed for that cam also so they shouldnt require machining if they are designed for that application or comp cams would have mentioned that I'm sure. cause if they didnt they would be having to warranty a lot of cams. but i will ask when I talk to them monday about that and post what i find out

 

all you'd have to do for a quick check is to bring a rocker or two to full lift and check between the coils with a feeler gauge or even a piece of heavy paper. there is either space between the coils or there is not. there has been a LOT of cams getting wiped on start-up lately because of crap lifters. they don't make 'em like they used to(imported). and our currently available oil no longer contains zinc, very important to a cam lobe during break-in. the recommendation lately is to use an Engine Oil Supplement.

 

Did you break the cam in with both springs installed? I know that Crower recommends that on double spring setups it's a good idea to do the break in with only the outside springs installed then after break in go back and install the inside springs.

 

comp cams recomended the break in with the outer springs also but I wasnt aware of this at the time of break in so it was broke in with both springs. comp cams didnt say this was a no no but did recomend one spring break in. my machinist did the assembly for me I just put the motor back in my 78 f150 4x4 and installed the minor stuff. today i removed the cam and found many spots on the cam on almost every lobe right before the top of the lobe. i hope your scratching your head like i am I thought i found it then i thought I found it again but I'm still not sure. so its 11 pm here I just back in the house from the garage. I put the cam back in and set up 3 different cylinders and a few of the lifters were still pumped most of the way up. I adjusted rockers as before with 3/4 turn after zero lash and rotated the motor checking each one and spring clearance was tight but not with out clearly visible gaps. with the lifters pumped all the way up at high rpm's it appears there will still be a gap. and after looking the heads over it looks as if there was some machining done under the springs. I hope i'm not becoming a pain in the buttocks but I'm grasping for straws here. this has been a lot of hard work looking and checking over and over again but I would spend the rest of my days fixing my ford before a drove a chevy. but believe me i greatly appreciate the comments and advice and i have used it in my checks but keep it coming fella's cause i'm still not sold on any one particular diagnosis, other than the fact i need a new cam and lifters and may get springs too just to be safe even though these are fairly new. who knows they may be the wrong springs. at this point i'm ready to try about any test to confirm a definate cause short of replacing the muffler bearings. and one more question about clean up. the particles in the pan were small and not a large amount. should I tear the motor down and completely clean and flush it or did the oil filter save me? my original plan was to use gas and pour into the valve gulley and into the front of the pan to rinse it out. then get everything good and oiled up prior to reinstall unless the direction call for something else. I also put a can of slick 50 in before all these troubles too. i wont use it again but looking back I think the engine was to early in the break in stage for that cause it made it harder to seat. my thinking on that was, since it had sit for awhile without being driven it might help it but please dont be to hard on me i believe it was a bad idea now but it may or may not have anything to do with my problems. even though it sat for a long period of time the engine was never seated before it was parked and i would start it periodically to keep oil and fuel where it needed to be. i expected some glitches and minor replacements but not to this extreme.

 

ok I took two old lifters and put a nut in the bottom of them so they became essentually solid lifters to check for the coil binding. since my others arent pumped up completely. at full lift there was about a dime with of gap so that appears to be fine. i guess mabe next step is to measure spring pressure. tips on that procedure would be appreciated. the trick might be to find the tool to do it. I'm headed to comp cams sight to get the specs and instructions if possible