I don't drive the car often so it has taken me over a year to put the miles on it. I have had to adjust the rockers a coupe of the times and have problems with valve train noise.
So... today I take off the intake and remove the rods and lifters and note that the lifters on the left bank (cylinders 5-8) and very worn while the right bank lifters are pretty good.

The exhaust lifters on 7 and 8 are actually worn shorter than the others which explains the adjustments and noise. All of the lifters on the left are worn unusually.

When I peek down through the lifter valley at the cam I notice that the cam lobes seem so far aft that they only come in contact with 50-75 percent of the lifter surface. This is only on the cylinders 5-8 and it gets more out of line as it gets closer to the number 8 cylinder


Shouldn't the cam lobe line up neatly with the cylinder that the lifter rides in?

Why would it only be off on the lobes that serve the left side cylinders while lining up ok on the right side?
I double checked the grind number on the cam before install it is FS XE256H-10 and the block/heads are original 65 289 with late 64 and early 65 date stamps.
Summitt racing has not been very helpful.

 

To clarify my question, what would make the left hand bank of lifters have only 1/2 a cam lobe to ride on while the cylinders 1 to 4 on the right seem normal?

cam is comp cams xe 256 H
engine is a 289 in 65 coupe.

 

maybe the cam lobes are worn? no proper break in or no ZDDp in oil?

 

I'm not sure of the answers to all your questions so I'll leave to more experienced members to help.

But, the lifter has to be slightly offset from the cam in order for the lifter to spin and thus wear more evenly.