Can the OEM roller hydralic lifters in my 89IROC--L98 350 be checked "on the bench" so to speak, to see if they are ok? Pumping up like they should-ETC?

The reason I ask is that after a trip to the local 1/8' strip, I damaged something in the valve train. There was no knocking, tapping, or smoke, but I had a pretty much dead cylinder. Based on past experiances and based on the sound of the exhaust, I felt it was something like a broken spring/rocker arm/bent or warped valve/bent pushrod, ETC. I did not spend a whole lot of time troubleshooting it, cause I knew the heads had to come off, and from the symptoms was pretty sure it was not in the bottom end.

The heads are off and going to the machine shop tomorrow and while they are in the shop, and I wanted to double check the lifters to make sure they are OK, as now would be the time to replace them, if one is bad. I have done a visual on all of them as far as the roller itself, and the wear patterns where they actually rub in the lifter hole itself. Everything looks ok, best I can tell, but if they can be bench tested, how is that done?

THANKS,
Craig

 

Not really but if you can push it down it usually will pump up. Take the lifter apart and inspect the assembly for debre. Thats about the only thing that will prevent the lifter from pumping up. if theres crap in the lifter it went through the oil pump fist.

 

There's no way to check them?


Take the lifter apart?


Seems like I remember reading here on TGO board on new lifters to preload them submerse them in clean oil and press then down ONCE and hold momentarily to load them. Does that sound right?

Do I want to clean them in varsol or parts cleaner, or just leave them alone?


Also I noticed when removing them to inspect that the oil hole on the side of the lifter, on the majority of them, was facing to the rear of the car. A couple were facing to the front. Does that make any difference?

 

if you don't see any wear i'd just use them. if you see wear or suspect you have a problem i'd replace them and skip the "bench test"

 

If I do the preload thing in oil and they all pop back up with the same resistance, could i assume they are probably OK?

THANKS!

 

No. It's not the rebound that is most important.

They aren't that hard to take apart and clean. You can check for wear or damage while disassembled. Only do one at a time, as the same parts have to go back together. You don't need to take the roller itself apart, just inspect the roller surface for unusual wear or rough bearing operation. Put them back together with oil, soak them all in oil overnight before installation, you shouldn't have any problem.

(An old story to illustrate the principal: I put new lifters in the original 283 from the '57 when I did a rering/rebearing job. I always had a little clatter at start-up that wouldn't go away with repeated adjustment. Eventually the engine lost a piston and I picked up another engine that had a good valvetrain, so my brother used the cam/lifters in a 327 he was rebuilding. He first disassembled each lifter and cleaned/lubed as described above, and the lifters were completely quiet when he got the engine running, through the day he sold the car several years later.)

 

Cool-THANKS!!!

 

Look for any of them with the plunger not all the way up against the spring - that would be a bad one....

 

THANKS!!!