If you want, I can go into more details but basically what I would like to know is what are the symptoms of a collapsed lifter? Out of 16, I can push the plunger down a little bit on 2 of them with my finger. And the Guy I bought this engine off of said they were new less than 500 miles before the rebuild he did. Problem is, I also found broken pieces of pushrods in the lifter valley......all 16 rockers had pushrods under them though......hmmmmm.

Thanks

 

After the engine builds oil pressure you can push them down with the pushrod, or are you saying un installed you can?

You didn't mention what car/engine you are working on. Is this a lt1 car or something else? Roller or tappet cam?

 

This would be as the engine sits on the stand. The engine hasn't run for a couple months now either. The intake and rockers are off and the good pushrods have been removed as well. All of the lifters are, however, still in their bores indexed correctly with the retainer plates on.

. Oh, and I kinda figured that since I posted this in a LT1 Tech section that it would be automatically considered that I was referring to a hydraulic roller lifter out of a LT1. . (Yes, I am aware of the other lifter options.......)

 

you should put some information about your car and any mods done to it in you signature to avoid the confusion in the future

i do not understand, peices of pushrods? do you have pictures of this

why did you take the motor apart, was there a problem with it?

you should be able to push them down a little bit with your finger, how much easier are those two than the rest?

 

Dan,
Ok, here it goes.....
I understand about the signature thing, problem is there isn't a car to put in there at this time. Just the engine right now. I decided to start a sleeper project and I'm using the LT1. I just haven't decided on the car to put it in yet.

Anyhow, I found a guy that had a LT1 for sale real cheap, and he said he did some work to it but it wouldn't run now. He told me a new replacement crank was put in due to a spun bearing. He also said that while he had it apart, he also put in new lifters, a xfi292 cam, and some Crane double springs.

I went ahead and bought it and figured worse case scenario, I have to rebuild the whole thing. No biggie, I got it for next to nothing. I pulled the valve covers off and noticed a few of the hardened one piece pushrods were shoved through the stock stamped rockers. When I pulled the intake I seen what looked like pieces of stock pushrods in the lifter valley. By this time, I started to realize exactly what I got myself into. I took a picture of the pushrods, but can't seem to figure out how to get it from my phone (Droid) to the net. I then pulled the heads and it looks as if the the intake valves have barely knicked the pistons. I decided to check the lifters and with my finger I could push down 2 of the plungers a little bit. I couldn't compress any of the other plungers at all.

I hope that has answered some questions.

 

I would start over with a matched valve train, and have the valves checked in the heads. The xfi 292 cam has .540+ lift (@1.5r/ratio) and the stock rockers can not support that lift (without modifying the slots) and from what your saying that didn't happen which probably damaged the cam, lifters,push rods,rocker arms,and valves.
LF

 

Yes, I realize all of that, and I am already planning on having the heads sent to AI. (Actually though, the cam still looks brand new. Yes I pulled it.) That is why I was asking about the lifters, because I don't know what a collapsed lifter acts like. I have never had one go out on me before, and I was wondering if these would be ok to reuse.

PS. Here is a link to what I found in my lifter valley. I hope it works.
http://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer...92204229782290

 

If the motor was stored a while with the lifters in question holding the valves open you should be able to press them down. The only way I've been able to diagnose a collapsed lifter is while the engine is running and if you give them a try your only out the extra cost of intake gaskets if they are bad. LF

 

Ok, so the only way to tell if a lifter is collapsed is to put it all back together and run it? What do you look for then ? And then if they are bad, I gotta tear it back apart and buy another set of gaskets. This kinda sucks. It would almost be better to just buy a new set of lifters and put gthem in then.

From what you all describe, it sounds like they should be OK. 50/50 I guess.......

 

Take all the lifters(they don't need to be kept in order) and bleed them down to remove the oil from below the bleed valve which keeps them pumped up. You will need a bench vise and a bolt to push against the plunger. Use a "V" block of some type to put the roller against and basically you are going to use the bolt against the plunger to slowly compress the lifter and force the oil out. This will take several cycles and don't go to far, if you do it slow the first few times you will get a feel for exactly when the lifter has bottomed out. Once most of the oil is out of the lifter you should be able to depress all of the plungers equally.

Most of the time I actually take them fully apart and clean all the internals, it's not hard - carefully pull the clip and pull the parts out one by one laying them on the bench so you have an example of how it goes back together. Then clean all the parts with solvent, brake clean, etc. Lightly oil when going back together and use a pick to depress the check ball as you drop that part in to release the air lock. Be very clean and lint free when doing this - lifters are the closest tolerance part in a motor and it doesn't take much to stick one.


Yours sound fine though, it's perfectly normal to have a few that are bleed down.

 

Thank you very much! This is what I have been looking for.