TheSamba.com :: View topic - Febi, Meyle & Mahle Lifters? Who has / uses what?

Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:11 pm

Febi, Meyle & Mahle? No - not the folk trio that used to be on the old Smothers Brothers* show. I'm talking about lifters.

What direct knowledge and experince does anyone have with these brands? How about Beck/Arnley, for that matter? Lifters are fairly simple things, so I wonder what the differences could be. The prices sure are all over the place.

Adios.

*not true

Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:15 pm

Well Meyle sucks. I have yet to find a good part from them. Mahle make pistons for VW, BMW and other German cars. Febi is questionable. My vote is for Mahle lifters. They seem to be the only people you have listed that make quality engine parts.

Tue Jan 13, 2009 9:18 pm

meyervw wrote: Well Meyle sucks... Febi is questionable. My vote is for Mahle lifters.
Hmm - interesting. Have you had any direct experience with Vanagon lifters made by any of these manufacturers? I had Meyle CV boots that fell apart super-fast.

Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:34 pm

CB Performance also sell lifters for a good price, but they do not say on their site what brand they are but someone on the Samba told me they thought they were Febi.

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=73

I've been trying to answer your question for my rebuild project too...

Wed Jan 14, 2009 1:56 pm

I bought my lifters from GoWesty. They're 'Made in the USA' but unbranded. I figured that if they're good enough for GW to use in their engines (that they offer up to a 48k mile warranty on) that they'd be good for my engine too. Best of all, they were cheap! $9.95 each!

Cheers!

Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:41 pm

Baxta wrote: They're 'Made in the USA' but unbranded. Beck/Arnley maybe? Where are they listed on the GW site. No can find. Or are they 'off the menu?'

How's your rebuild going, BTW?

Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:00 pm

deprivation wrote: Baxta wrote: They're 'Made in the USA' but unbranded. Beck/Arnley maybe? Where are they listed on the GW site. No can find. Or are they 'off the menu?'

How's your rebuild going, BTW?

They are indeed on the secret menu (which makes me think of In'N'Out Burger... mmmmm... I'll be back in a sec... That's one thing for the fellow that's considering moving from Cali to Canada to consider - no In'N'Out up here...)

The rebuild stalled for a while there - backordered parts delays were not part of my original time budget. A couple of out-of-town weddings on back-to-back weddings allowed for the parts to get here, and I'll be back at it on Saturday. I pick up my ceramic coated parts (pistons, exhaust) tomorrow, and start putting things back together on Saturday if all goes well.

Til then,

Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:29 pm

I just found the post that talked about the CB Perfomance lifters. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=326328&highlight=performance+lifters

Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:52 pm

Pascal wrote: I just found the post that talked about the CB Perfomance lifters. Very interesting. The CB lifter appears to have a little disk valve which is what I've heard make's the Febi lifters so well-liked. But at the same time the CB lifter uses the paperclip-style retainers which are not typical of Febi (and not well-liked).

Go Westy told me that thier lifters are indeed, "American Made". I have no idea what that means and Ted Ingle over there did not comment further. But that price is hard to beat. The overall view here is that GW tends to sell quality stuff.

More questions than answers, I suppose.

Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:49 pm

I've been getting mine from CB for awhile and both the Meyles and the new no-name replacements have so far performed well. I bench fill all of them.

The clip isn't an issue when there's preload.

Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:05 pm

tencentlife wrote: both the Meyles and the new no-name replacements have so far performed well.
Well that's good news because no matter the vendor, the Meyle lifters are always significantly less costly than the Febis. Still I wonder who in the USA is making GW's lifters. Thanks for the datapoint.