Hey guys, I just removed the valve cover on my trans am to pin- point a ticking noise I've been hearing under my hood. I was going to try the engine-running valve lash adjustment thing. But once I started the engine and looked at the valves doing there thing I noticed that one of the valves on the number 6 cylinder (the valve closest to the front of the car) was not moving as much as the other valves. The ticking seems to be eminating from this cylinders valves. Any thoughts as to what might be going on here? Do I have a bad lifter?

 

I'm in your same boat exactly, lol Did an intake swap and 3hrs later terrible lifter tick on odd bank cylinders. Pulled cover and found #7 exh barely moving, a few guys I talked to seem to think collapsed lifter, I HOPE!! So I wont know if it's lobe missing until I can drain the oil next Sunday looking for glitter to prove the cam is gone and motor needs torn down. Still carries 60psi oil going down the road, pushrods were all straight, no broken rockers or springs so I'm trying to stay positive and hope it can be fixed with a quick cam/lifter swap. You could take a dail indicator to measure actual lobe lift compared to the other lobes, but if your like me and dont have that device or the time, try the checking your oil method. It should tell you if the lobe is ground off.

 

I really don't think in my case that the lobe is ground off either... I just changed the oil last week (thought the tick was a sticky lifter) and added some CD-2, which obviously didn't help. But I didn't see any metal shavings in the oil at all. What is involved in fixing a collapsed lifter?

 

In a nut shell removing the intake and pulling the lifters, you could just buy a a whole new set as cheap as they are and install, do the cam break in routine just to be sure the lifters seat back upto the cam, might not be needed, but does'nt hurt to be on the safe side.

With mine it's just about as easy to yank the motor, cause I figured as long as I'm doing it I'll stick a better stick in it and a solid at that so setting valves is alot less messy. Plus it'll give me the change to install the 1 peice pan gasket, check for other leaks if any and install the .015 head gaskets for the extra .5 bump in compression.

I hate to tell you to just replace all the lifters and then find out it's something else, but that's what I'm gonna do, the new intake made mine pull really strong so I'm gonna get a tad bit bigger bump stick and see if this little crutch motor can get into mid 12's with just the cam/intake swap. Might even intall the 4500 stall we have laying around too since it's there.

 

I thought all lifters were solid before 87. How can a solid lifter collapse? Just curious.

 

Nope. Hydraulic flat tappet. They stopped putting solid flat tappets in the engine, from factory, a while ago.