The engine that came with my car was a late model 2.0. It fired up but made a racket. I shut it down right away. Turns out it was a stuck lifter. The lifter was toast and so was its corresponding cam lobe.

Next I bought a used short block with pistons. Same 914 engine code but the lifters look a little different, I do not believe they were Hydraulic. The cam in this block was good.

Now I have my parts back from the machine shop. Everything has been balanced and checked out and is ready to put back together. Like I said, the new to me cam is checked and good and the old push rods are all straight (the lifter was stuck in).

Question: I read that you want to match the lifters with their original cam and lobes. With that said should I use the replacement lifters that came with the "new" cam? If so, do the push rods need to be checked for compliance?

This is my first go at engine building and so far this is all that escapes me. (so far )

Thanks in advance.....

Perhaps the original lifters were hydraulic and only needed proper clearance? You saw that the cam lobe was worn down/damaged?

I wouldn't want to mess with having hydraulic lifters. I converted a solid lifter engine to hydraulic by changing the cam, push rods, lifters (of course), used 10mm adjuster rockers and solid spacers, and also plugged the hole for the oil control valve from the inside with a tig welder. I converted it back, at considerable expense, after less than 10,000 miles when they started clacking on startup.

It sounds like the first engine was a 2.0 bus engine to have hydraulic lifters. The push rods would be steel and shorter than the aluminum push rods for solids. Also the cam would be a different grind on the hydraulic engine.

So if you want solids, you should use the cam on the 2nd engine, but only with the original lifters that were in that engine. Afaik, you can't get oem solid lifters new, and aftermarket lifters will not be hardness matched to the oem cam.

If you have to use aftermarket lifters, they will not be hardness matched to an oem cam so you would need one that is. Also aftermarket lifters are usually shorter functional length than the originals, so you would need new push rods cut. Hope that helps.

Did you have the cam and lifters reground from your parts engine?

If you are using a used cam and used lifters that have not been regroud they must go back in the same hole they came out of. The cam lobes and the lifters develop a wear pattern. If you didn't mark what lifter was in what hole when you took it apart you are asking for trouble because you have no way of knowing what hole is correct during assembly. I won't say you can't mix and match but don't expect much in terms of life expectancy of that cam.

You should also make sure you check the valve train geometry when doing your assembly. If it's off then you need new push rods anyway which you will need to cut to the correct length and assemble.

I recently built a budget 1911 with a used cam but I had marked the relation of each lifter to lobe. Have about 8K miles on it so far and valves only needed slight adjustment after the first run. I, however, am not expecting much out of this engine since it's made mostly of used parts I had lying around.

Remember if you develop a problem with the cam the whole engine needs to be torn down to access...how much is your time worth, a new cam and lifters may not be so pricey if you look at it that way.

Good luck with the rebuild and make sure you use a good break-in oil for the first run!

I don't think I would go through the hassle of a rebuild and not replace the cam and lifters...

I've done it (once) and regretted it

way too much work and machining costs to avoid replacing the cam
and you should measure out and go through the pushrod length steps too... (a ton of work you don't want to repeat)

It's not like you can just swap out the cam later if you want to upgrade like you can with a distributor, or rocker assemblies. . . Cam selection (among other things) is a critical part of building a motor. It's literally the heart of the engine and helps control how much power and when it comes on and off. It also helps controls head temps and can aid in allowing more flow for a given port size.

I'm not trying to be critical here as I know this is your first motor build. But I will never understand why folks will willingly agree to just use whatever cam is laying around and "good" when they don't even know the specs and how they relate to the engine they are building. . . That is a recipe for not only disaster, but compromised driveability, tune-ability and a lot of this

Just my .02 . . .

Ok, so I pony up for a new cam and lifters. I think I can live with that. But that's about the last $500 I can throw at this part of the project.

Next question for up for general consensus.

I have stock heads that have been cleaned with new SS valves and springs/retainers

I have dished pistons

I have 4 new injectors and a previously working injection system.

I just bought a running motor, spec unknown with a set of Weber 40s on it.

Do I:
1: stick with a stock grind cam kit from Aircooled Tech and use stock fuel injection
2: use the Weber set up from this new motor with a modified cam grind (9530 Cam & Valvetrain Kit 9106)
3: sell off the restored parts and install the complete motor I have

I'm leaning toward a stock cam and injection myself.....