i redid my headgaskets this past week on my 95 lt1. whn i was reassembleing the motor, i noticed that i had blown the cap off the lifter (nothing new for me, i've been having nothing but problems with these) i needed another one quick, so i hit up autozone and lo and behold, they had them in stock. i bought 2. i soaked it in oil for a few min. before i installed it , but the spring pressure in it was weak.. like i could compress it by hand wih no problem. both lifters i bought were like this. i thought they just needed to be pumped up... well i set the lash on all the rockers, and i set the new lifter just like all the others, even though it still didn't feel right. i didn't put too much preload on it, i'm almost positive. got it all back together tonight, and started it up. on that side (it sounds like it) there's a backfire like clockwork happening. i'm thinking i either screwed somthing up with the lifter (i'm not sure if i was supposed to do something else other than what i did) or i have some plug wires on backwards. i didn't have a diagram with me tonight when i was putting it all back . i have one now, but the truck is not with me.... so...
the backfire is every .75 seconds at idle. seems to me that if i reversed cylinders 1 and 3 plug wires, it would backfire a tad different....

i dunno what happened. i hope it's nothing to do with the lifter... anyone have any ideas or experience you can give me here? i really hope i didn;t mess anything up when i replaced the lifter. i've done it before when the comp r's shat out on me, and my engine builder put stockers back in, i've never felt a lifter spring like the ones i just got tho. really light, there's no way that would push a valve open until it got pumped up.

 

relash the two lifters ya messed with. sounds to me like the exhaust is too tight now that its pumped up and its holding the valve open. lifters that arent full of oil have nothing to stop them from collapsing and thats why they felt spongy to you. but clearly if you botched the plug wires that could cause a similar problem, so i'd verify the firing order before i went tearing the valve cover off.

 

yup. i talked to my builder a few min ago, and he said the same thing. i went through my lifter replacement in great detail, and he said that should be ok. he thinks it's the plug wires. i hope so