Roller –This carburized-steel roller bearing design withstood over ten million cycles during the testing phase on the Spintron, and according to Comp’s Billy Godbold, “These lifters performed incredibly well and didn’t fail during that testing."

by Fastest Street Car Magazine

In the world of drag racing, endurance is a term that is extremely subjective, as it changes upon the competition – you have eighth-mile racing, 1,000-foot racing, and quarter-mile racing. Then, take into account all of the various different classes, engine combinations, and cars to put them in, and ET’s ranging from 3-second Top Fuel passes to the bracket-racing Champion at your local track putting along in his daily-driver 19-second station wagon. As a result, when manufacturers create parts, they need to do it with a wide range of applications in mind (except your truly custom race applications, of course).

Engineering dollars are critical to part design, and the companies that spend them in the right places are oftentimes rewarded with a ‘must-have’ part for a particular competition level. That’s what Comp Cams is betting on with their new Elite Race Solid Roller Lifters, as they have come up with a clean-sheet design after quite a bit of time spent on research, development and tons of testing. The lifters are designed to hold up to just about anything, and a high-RPM race engine is where they are happiest.

Over the last several years, camshaft materials, testing, and the tools to measure the results of those tests have gotten more technologically-advanced. Billet camshaft cores, larger bearing sizes, and other modifications designed to obtain better performance have become the norm rather than the exception, and the camshaft grinders can now spec out cams that are much more aggressive than they may have been in the past.

Offset – These lifters make it simple to get your pushrod alignment correct. With options for a center, left, or right-side pushrod seat, they are simple to change over. The holes are also customizable to change the amount of pressurized oil to the pushrod.

Lifters Designed for High Stress Valvetrain Environments

Unfortunately, while the camshaft manufacturers have been able to generate more power via the camshaft, the added stresses that are placed on the rest of the valvetrain demand the use of stout components, often increasing the cost to the racer. That’s where the Elite Race Solid Roller Lifters come in – they are half the cost of some of the other designs on the market, but the engineers at Comp have used their know-how to ‘build a better mousetrap’, as the saying goes. “A few years ago this kind of lifter technology only went into 24-hour races and the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but as things have progressed we realized there are a lot of other applications that can really use a high-quality solid roller lifter,” explained Billy Godbold of Comp Cams. “Especially when you think about teams that are racing on a more real-world budget – sportsman drag racers, for example – they want to be able to put that part in there and run the race without having to worry about it.”

Column – In order to shave some weight, Comp’s engineers came up with this innovative column design. It helps to maintain the strength level throughout the lifter body where it is needed, but remove weight where it is not.

The Construction and Features

Linkbar – The link-bar design helps to permit the lifter bodies to be used in a variety of applications, and these are constructed of high-quality steel for longevity.

The body of the lifter is constructed of 8620 alloy steel, and features a unique column design, rather than the thin-wall full-body design that has been prevalent on the market for years. The interesting thing about the column design is that is permits Comp to put the material where it’s most useful and has the most strength, and remove the material where it’s not needed. In addition, by using the column design, the traditional oil band on the lifter is removed, which helps to reduce wear on the lifter bores.

• 8620 Alloy Steel
• Column Design
• Tool Steel Axle
• Dual Axle Pins
• Removable Push Rod Seats

The lifter bodies are also hit with the REM polishing process to remove stress risers and create a more uniform finish on the final part, which also assists in oil control. However, these are not the major improvements to the design. The roller rides on an axle that’s .400” in diameter and cut from a special tool steel. They also redesigned the needle bearing package to include 23 needle bearings – a 43% increase over past designs – which helps to disperse the load so a failure is less likely. In addition, the axle is also pinned on both sides, which makes it a stressed member of the lifter body and keeps the ears on the lifter body from flexing under load.

Oil view – It’s interesting to us how Comp redesigned the oiling path through the lifter. By pressurizing the inside of the axle, it permits oil to flow much more smoothly to the bearings, ensuring that they don’t starve for oil and fail as a result.

The large diameter axle also created an opportunity for the Comp engineers to modify and improve the oiling to the lifter. Instead of directing the oil at the side of the lifter, and relying on the pressure to inject it into the needle bearings, the new design floods the center of the hollow axle via the column section of the body.

From there, the oil pressurizes through a hole in the center of the axle to feed the roller bearings, dramatically increasing lubrication to the part. They tested bushed designs to see if they would perform any better than the roller bearings, but found no improvements, and in fact, were concerned enough about durability to scrap the idea for this particular product line. “The axle is an extremely high-quality tool steel,” explains Godbold of the roller design. “Then with the larger diameter, the load can be spread over a larger area, which really helps. And also, the roller itself is unique. A lot of other companies use a hardened tool steel wheel, but that can wind up being too brittle. We went with a very high grade of carburized steel, which is more flexible. By adding that flexibility, again it helps spread out the load a little bit more, and what you wind up with is a lifter that has excellent durability.”

In addition, another innovation created by the Comp crew was the use of removable pushrod seats. The seats themselves are removable and can quickly be swapped out. This means that if you decide you need a set of lifters with offset pushrod seats to clean up the valve train geometry, you can quickly and inexpensively convert these lifters without having to purchase a new set.

Pins – In order to ensure that the rollers stay where they are supposed to, Comp Cams pins both sides of the bearing axle. This has the added benefit of ‘locking’ the axle to the lifter body and making the whole assembly stronger.

The seats also feed pressurized oil to the pushrods, so you can actually use the orifice in the pushrod seats to customize the amount of oil going to the rockers and springs. “We’ve really taken a complete look at how we can build the very best solid roller lifter possible for our customers and come up with a completely new lifter,” Godbold says. “And by that, I mean cost, too. We didn’t cut corners, but we also didn’t build in any unnecessary costs. There are some companies that have coated lifter bodies, but these bodies did extremely well in our testing, so we decided to put our investment into the roller and axle.”