How difficult is it to replace a broken lifter (flat tappet or roller)? Also what other problems should I look for as either a result or cause of the lifter breaking?

 

gotta pull the intake to do it

 

You'll have to remove the valve covers and intake, and anything attached to them. What leads you to believe you have a broken lifter?

 

its a car i'm thinking about buying. Guy says he's taken it in to a shop and a friend and both say its a broken lifter.

I asked him twice is anything on bottom end is/could be damaged and he said no.

Anything I should look out for?

 

I'd be a bit worried that it's something more serious, like a wiped cam lobe.

 

yea, that would be no good. He said cam was fine, I asked if anything scraped the cam or wore the lobes at all and he said no.

 

There's no way he could know, unless he'd taken it apart. If he'd done that, he should have just replaced the lifter.

 

He said "the shop took it apart but didnt replace the lifter, the shop then put it back together cause he was towing the car 400 miles"

Thats also kind of what i'm wondering is why he doesnt just replace the lifter or didnt have the shop do it when they took it apart. I'll ask him when I go look at the car tonight.

Here are the specs: 350 30 over, th400, 3.73 auburn, dual flowmaster, NOS, B&M ratchet shifter, dart II heads, dual cold air intake, hooker headers, msd 6a-l, I can't remember which radiator he said, fan switch. He couldnt remember which crank, pistons, rods, rings, year of block etc. But he said he could find out (but hasnt yet). Decent interior, only minor dents, new paint.

He wants $1800.

What yall think?

 

he just called, said he didnt have the money and he was moving so didnt have the desire to mess with it right then, so he just towed it home.

 

i would give him 500 maybe 600 for it cause you got to do all that work.

 

Presumably he paid the shop to take it apart and put it back together. It would have cost him an additional $6 for a new lifter. Something's not adding up.

 

He didnt do the work, the shop looked at it for him but told him they had to charge him if they replaced it. Starting to make a little more sense now, although would 95% of people just pay to fix it then sell it.

I think 500 or 600 would kind of be a slap in the face considering the th400 (was built for a drag car but never used - 10k miles on it), newish 3.73, dart II heads, and painted in '02.

 

It sounds like you've already made up your mind. If you want it, buy it and pay whatever you think its worth. I'd be suspicious until I'd received an explanation as to how he convinced a shop to give him free labour.

 

well, its not that I made up my mind, it just seams that if it is what it is and I do all the work I feel strongly that I will have a 3-4 thousand dollar car for only 2000 after replacing lifter and complete tune up. What do you think it is worth/will be worth? I guess what Im really asking is should I do it or not?

 

you could be very well right, replacing the lifter might do the job, or there could be a wiped cam lobe, bearing damaged etc

its very hard to tell, without it running that car isn't worth anything more then 500 bucks.

but if you want to take the risk go for it, i for one wouldn't touch the car with a 10 foot pole

 

go for it, for that price you dont have much to loose, you cant get half of the parts in the for your price, you could always part it out and still be ahead

 

also ask him what shop he took it to and call them up.. i'm sure they could look up what was wrong with the car, i believe they should keep records.

 

i figure:
th400 300-400
dart head 400-500
roller chassis 400
rear end 200 (not too up to date on rear ends)
Short block 200
MSD 50
B&M shifter 20
Carb 40
NOS kit 90
Headers 100
Flowmasters 50 (no cats, just straight pipes, true dual)

thats only 1850-2050, if everything works. Head could be damaged, a piston could be damaged, cam could be damaged, or one of the other items listed may not work. Then it would be down to 1250-1350, and i'd be losing a lot of money. Cam could easily be damaged by the lifter.

 

Firebreed makes a good point about the shop and their records. I'd check that out. For all you know, this guy could have tried to adjust the lash and overtightened the rocker and wiped out more than one lobe. Does the car actually start and run right now? If it does, then you could make a more sound investment by doing a little troubleshooting yourself, if the owner's willing to let you. Tell him you'll buy and put on a new set of valve covers if he'll let you remove the valve covers to figure out which lifter is bad. Tell him you'd like to drive the car home instead of towing it. If he agrees, get the car running and let it idle until it is at it's normal operating temp. Then pull the valve covers and use either a mechanics stethoscope or a piece of tubing near each valve and listen. If the lifter is noisy, then you found the culprit. Drain a little of the oil and then replace it with a quart of Risoline oil that you can buy at any autoparts store and top off the oil as necessary to bring the oil to the full line. Then run the car again and see if the lifter noise goes away. If it does, then the problem is inside the lifter and the lifter replacement will fix all of your problems. If the problem pursists then the problem is most likely at either the foot of the lifter where it contacts the cam lobe, or the problem is with the cam lobe itself, making this a costly repair. Even if you find a noisy lifter in the intial test, don't think that's the only one. Check each lifter to make sure this is an isolated problem and the only problem. I hope it is a simple fix, good luck.