Saw these in the Summit store online
 

Has anyone used these or know someone who has -they seem a good idea but how does it affect oil pressure and does it help cam lobe wear ?

Rhodes lifters?

What are those? Rhoades variable duration lifters? If so, they work. I have used them more than once, the only thing I didnt like about them, is they used to bleed way down, and give me a valve tap on occasion. Dont know if that has been solved or not with them, but wouldnt be surprised if that has been rectified.

:haha:

I slow!

I've used them, didn't care for them. If I needed a cam to make more vacuum for the specs, I'd go solid instead of the Rhodes

The picture is of a set of HOWARDS direct lube solid lifters. Notice the small hole in the lifter face, it is designed to run oil pressure at the contact face between the lifter and camshaft for better oiling. With todays modern oils with low zinc and phosfourous levels, it can't hurt to have extra oil available to prevent lobe wear. Personally I would just use a conventional lifter with a oil with high zinc and phosfourous levels.

rotella!

Since 2011 when diesels started using DEF they reduced the ZINC and phosfourous levels in Rotells as well. It is alot higher than gas oil is, but still nothing like ROTELLA was in 06. Pre emissions Rotella was around 1300 PPM of ZINC, now it's around 800 The minumum for a flat tappet cam during break in is 1100 or so, and around 900 for regular oil changes(unless you have a modern hardened flat tappet cam, and then they say a properly broke in cam will live an OK life at 750). To put it in perspective, I believe modern S rated oils are around 300-450 PPM of ZINC. VALVOLINE XR racing oils are still around 1250-1300 as well as a few other performance oils.

DISCLAIMER: My numbers may be off as it has been awhile since I researched oil formulation changes. And this is for US based products, international markets can still have higher levels of ZINC and PHOSFOUROUS since they don't have our messed up emission regs and systems.

I was told to use the api cj-5 rotella it is suposed to be the high zinc. I Dont know for sure, I'll call their customer service next week, they have an excellent tech line