Can lifters go bad? Need advice

[DarkoNova]

Little bit of backstory.

Around 2010 I decided to do heads, cam, and intake on my 69 Nova. I was also replacing seals and gaskets when I saw how bad the bearings were, so it turned into a full on rebuild.

Took longer than expected, but around 2013 it was finally done. Broke in the cam and drove it for a month or so, when someone rear ended me. So I parked the car for a while. 2016, I took it to a shop for bodywork.

Finally, around February 2018, I got it back and have been working on getting it up and running. I got it back on the road and the engine is tapping. Diagnosed it as noisy lifters.

So I adjusted the valves and the tapping turned to more of a sewing machine sound.

But maybe 5 minutes later, it was back to tapping.

The next day, I adjusted the valves again, and I was adjusting the exhaust valve on cylinder 2. Got it to zero lash and then went another quarter turn. Tightened up the nut and poly lock, and not even a minute later, for some reason I thought I'd check the rocker and it was loose again.

So basically, I'm wondering if the engine sitting for so long might have killed the lifters?



From 2013-2016 it was sitting in my driveway.

From then to 2018 when it was in the body shop, the shop said they only ever started it to move it around.

So basically 5 years of sitting.

The cam is a Comp XE274H, with matching lifters.

My buddy has some brand new Edelbrock lifters that he's willing to let me use. Can I just throw them in, break them in and be good to go?