Im hearing different each time I talk to someone. One person says they dont presoak them, the other say they do? Someone help me out!

 

None of the cam companies are supporting the old soak and pump up of hydraulic flat tappet lifters.

Washing and oil soaking rollers lifters is recomended.

 

I was always taught not to fill the lifters.

Since you can't compress a liquid, it would make setting pre-load
a little difficult.

 

My expereince is that this is one of those "voodoo" subjects. Lotsa "magic" and "superstition" and it basically amounts to nothing.

Soak 'em or don't soak 'em. Makes damned little difference. You're basically only getting the outside of the lifter wet.

There is no way for the trapped air pockets inside a lifter to bleed themselves with an overnight soak. It takes real pressure and flow to do that.

Don't beleive me? Take 2 new hydraulic lifters. Submerge one in motor oil overnight. Leave the other one out in the air. Next morning go out and try to compress the lifter plunger on both. You will be able to fully compress the plunger even on the soaked lifter. No oil got inside to fill up the oil cavity and prevent it from compressing.

Go on- try it! (I have).

Main thing is to get plenty of assembly lube on the faces of the lifters (for a flat tappet style lifter- roller it doesn't matter) and make sure the lifter bores have some lubrication to start up on, too.

 

Regardless of other "Opinions" I prefer to fill them with an oil gun

May or may not make a differance but it makes me feel good and has worked for me so far

 

Damon is right. The lifter won't fill with oil by simply soaking it.

If you want to fill your lifters with oil, submerge them, then use a pushrod to compress the plunger and release a few times.

Mike

 

If you hold them under oil while you do what Ellis said with the oil gun, you can watch air bubbles come out of them...and working them with a pushrod doesn't hurt either.

It can't hurt to soak them in oil first, so why not?