The hydraulic lifter issue has been a perplexing one for a good number of years now. For whatever reason, maybe because nothing is USA made anymore, the new manufactured hydraulic lifters seen to collapse prematurely. Sometimes right away, sometims after you get a couple of hundred miles on them. So the wisdom has been to get either nos gm lifters, or aftermarket lifters that were made at least 25 or better years ago.
A friend of mine who owns the machine shop that does my machine work was rebuilding a 53 powerglide motor and went through 3 different sets of new lifters. Every set had lifters that collapsed. I gave him a set of nos gm and that solved the problem. So I would say, kick the weeds and hold out for a set of gm lifters.
So, for 54-55 motors with powerglide trans (remember the blocks are different depending on the trans used in 54-55), and all 56-58 motors, the gm number is 5231450 (HL-18) and for 59-62 the gm number is 5231830 (HL-31).
As for the corvette 235 cam, it is not all that much different then a standard 235 cam of the era, a tiny bit higher in lift. The ramps are just a bit quicker then a standard hydraulic cam so there is some difference. Not a terrible cam, I ran one for a very short period, but not really all that much of an improvement. In a 261 application, it’s no improvement at all given the larger displacement of the 261 over the 235 motor and it’s just a stock 261 cam. I ran Clifford cams when jack Clifford was still living. They were made by Erson in those days ground to jack Clifford’s cam specs. They were pretty good cams, including the dual pattern cams he use to sell. I still have one left that I bought back in 82 or so that is way way too big (I was still in the bigger is better phase) so that one is destined for a regrind. i have run a Chet Herbert regrind that was one of the better cams I ever had (I still have it in a motor in the back of the garage.) I have run Howard and Isky, they were ok but not stellar. My recent cam purchases came From Schneider in San Diego. Jerry Cantrell, the boss, still answers the phone, or his son, and he will grind you a new cam if he can get a decent blank (that is the issue at the moment, new blanks are made periodically, some are better then others) or regrind your cam. You tell him what motor, the car, trans, gearing, weight and what you are doing with the car and he will put a grind together for you. I had a really good experience with them, including when I nicked a lobe clearencing the cam for 302 gmc truck rods. They reground the cam and did not kill me on price. So you have some alternatives.
Hydraulic Camshafts with lifts in the .410-.420 range and duration in the low 250s puts you in the 1800 to 3700 rpm power band, if you want just a little more umph, a cam in the .450 lift range and a duration in the low 260 range puts the power band slightly higher at 2000-4300. Those ranges are different with a mechanical cam because you can use faster ramps and build power earlier with a mechanical cam. If you are looking for that rumpety rump warmed up cam sound, go to mechanical lifters.
Finally, just to be somewhat complete, there are no known issues with any of the mechanical lifters on the market.
