Could something be inserted into a hyd roller lifter (L98) to make it simulate being pumped-up? Little washers maybe?

I want to check my pushrod length and piston-valve clearance while eng is on stand.

I've heard a solid roller lifter can be used, but I don't really want to buy one. Are they even the same length as a L-98 hyd roller lifter?

 

no idea but i'd suspect a solid and hydrolic roller may require differant push rod lengths. try using a pair of soft springs and it won't push the plunger down in the lifter. i've been wanting to make a couple pairs of dummy lifters but don't know the length and haven't got around to asking here or else where.

 

The soft springs will work for the pushrod length checking.

However, I'm thinking that I will need the lifter to have sufficient resistance to compress the modeling clay while checking piston-valve clearance.

I just finished cleaning the lifters.

While I had them apart, I was wondering if I could put some grease in the bottom (under the piston) of the lifter to keep it up.
Afterwards, I'd have to disassemble them to remove the grease, but thats easy enough.

 

If it's a used lifter (full of oil) it will survive a cycle or two without squishing down too much- just run it through the cycle quickly- don't let it rest on the lobe stationary. And it will be fully at the top of it's adjustment travel, too. When you disassembled the valve train the internal spring pushed it to the top of it's adjustment and the oil that was in the lifter back-filled in the internal adjustment cylinder inside the lifter.

 

After I re-assembled the lifters, I submerged them in new eng oil.
Layed them so the oil hole in the side was facing up. Didn't see any bubbles coming out.

While they were surmerged, I inserted the push rod and pumped them till the air was out.

About half of them acted like the air was out. (Couldn't compress them anymore)
The other half could still be compressed, but no more air was coming out. (Maybe my rate-of-compression was insufficient?)

Anyway, I was able to use two of the non-compressable ones to check piston-valve clearance and push rod length.

The piston-valve clearance was ~.218" without a head gasket installed. No problems there.

Checked pushrod length with a .045" head gasket using the stock pushrods just for grins.

To my suprise, the contact pattern was 1/3 the width of the valve tip and centered in the center 1/3 of the tip! (using 1.6 pro mags)

Should I call it good, or is it likely that I can still improve my contact pattern with different length pushrods?

 

i forgot molding clay, or play dough. i use an indicator on the valve to measure it, lot more accurate and the clay tends to tear and get into the places i'd rather it not. soft springs are a must with the indicator method.

 

ttt

 

You can remove the spring and insert washers in it's place. I've got one like that (somewhere) right now. Cheap and easy.

I used it to degree a few cams, although I haven't gotten around to checking valve-to-piston clearance yet.

The soft springs may be sufficient. The downfall of using the washers is you're probably not going to be able to keep the plunger at max height in the lifter. I'm not sure how much that'll change from the plunger moving up and down.

The way you've done it sounds better for checking the contact point on the valve stem. Sounds like it worked for ya.

 

I haven't found any way of sufficiently bench-priming the lifters. There's always some air in them. Once they've run on a motor they're full up, but that's it.

However, I also think you could call it a day and go with what you got at this point.

For future reference- get ONE extra lifter and spot weld the pushrod cup to the inside bore of the lifter. It would be your "checking" lifter and would absolutely guarantee the lifter wouldn't squish down under spring pressure. I build wacko tools like this from time to time becuase you can't buy them. I have done this with a flat tappet, but never a roler lifter. Can't see why it wouldn't work, though.

 

Thx for the replies.
If I had an extra roller lifter, I probably would have tried to welded it.
The bad part is, all I have is a stick welder; and that would have been ugly!

If one really wanted to cut hairs with this method, seems like you could measure how far down the pushrod side of the rocker travels when the nut is turned 5/8 of a turn, then depress the lifter piston the same amount, then weld it.

Just had another idea. (I've been thinking abt this too much)
One could drill a hole in the side of the lifter so the underside of the piston was ported. Fill the piston cavity with epoxy (JB weld, whatever), press the piston back in to where it is X distance (from above procedure) from the clip ring groove, and let it dry. The hole that was drilled would allow the excess epoxy to vent out.

Humm, all I need now is an extra lifter..

 

I have some push-rod length checkers but ive never used them. How in the world do you check with them?