Having Issues With A Used Trick Flow Stage 1 Cam

So I bought a used cam from someone off of a fox body Facebook forum. The cam looks ok to the eye but I got it installed on the car and primed the motor and lifters with an old distributor that I made into a priming tool. Long story short after torquing down the rocker arms to spec some of the rockers are pretty loose still. I can slide the stock cam back in it and do the same process with priming and torquing and the rockers are nice and tight like they should be. Is it possible that I got sold a worn cam?
 
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Start it up and see if they tick really bad. Once the oil leaks back out of the lifter the rockers will be loose. It's not a valid test unless the engine is running. Very unlikely a bad cam, more likely bad lifters if anything.

Kurt
 
Start it up and see if they tick really bad. Once the oil leaks back out of the lifter the rockers will be loose. It's not a valid test unless the engine is running. Very unlikely a bad cam, more likely bad lifters if anything.

Kurt
I had started it up with the trick flow cam and it had some really bad rocker arm clacking, I let it run for not quite 5 mins or so hoping they would quite down some bit never did. I cut it off for a few mins and started it back but they were making a lot of noise so I pulled the upper intake and a valve cover and discovered the loose rockers. Not all were loose but some were a little looser than others. I've put several cams in similar to this one and never had any kind of issue like this before?
 
So I bought a used cam from someone off of a fox body Facebook forum. The cam looks ok to the eye but I got it installed on the car and primed the motor and lifters with an old distributor that I made into a priming tool. Long story short after torquing down the rocker arms to spec some of the rockers are pretty loose still. I can slide the stock cam back in it and do the same process with priming and torquing and the rockers are nice and tight like they should be. Is it possible that I got sold a worn cam?
A worn cam is a destroyed cam. It will look like it. If you have a wiped lobe, the lobe will look almost like it was ground on, will be very rough to the touch, and more than likely be a different shape that the other lobes. But for a roller cam to do that it would be highly unusual. You'll be able to see " normal wear" on that cam,..each lobe will have a shiny path where the roller lifter tracked on the lobe surface.
What is possible is that the cam has higher lift than the stocker, and the pushrod is now going so tight when tightened, that it's bleeding the lifter down as you tighten it down.
Not anything more than a guess, but it could happen.
 
A worn cam is a destroyed cam. It will look like it. If you have a wiped lobe, the lobe will look almost like it was ground on, will be very rough to the touch, and more than likely be a different shape that the other lobes. But for a roller cam to do that it would be highly unusual. You'll be able to see " normal wear" on that cam,..each lobe will have a shiny path where the roller lifter tracked on the lobe surface.
What is possible is that the cam has higher lift than the stocker, and the pushrod is now going so tight when tightened, that it's bleeding the lifter down as you tighten it down.
Not anything more than a guess, but it could happen.
I hoped the same thing that it was just squishing the lifter a little more than normal that's why I went ahead and started it but they never stopped clacking... Is it possible that a weak oil pump would not pump the lifters up adequately? I don't have an oil pressure gauge on it just the dummy factory gauge. With the stock cam in it the valve train is whisper quite. It doesn't have a whole lot of resistance when I prime the oil pump by hand but it does get out to every rocker when priming though. The cam really only shows normal wear nothing rough or chunky about it, it's really got be baffled! I think I'll wait till spring and try the install again and go ahead and pull the motor and put a high volume oil pump in it and new lifters also with the cam
 
What rocker arms are you using? If you're using stock ones, you're going to need to upgrade to an adjustable roller rocker to get your lash in spec.

Some cams seem to be on a smaller base circle (not sure that's the right term) than the stocker. For instance I couldn't ever get the stock rockers to lash correctly with a Steeda #18 or #19. They were always to loose like you describe. Both of those cams were new BTW.

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