i am swappin cams and i lost a lifter down in the engine somehow and i think its in the pan. i was wondering the easiest way to fix without having to completely remove the pan. thanks for your help and input.

 

cut a hole in the pan and weld it back in place when done...other than that i dont think you are going to be able to get that lifter back up through the motor....

 

Yeah, that pan is coming off man. I'm curious how you managed that in the first place.

 

cant imagine how u did that?

 

i dont really see how i did it either i had a few sittin in the valley and i heard clunk in the pan and i counted them and i only have 15

 

I believe you can pull it out from below, or around the crank gear area after removing the timing chain cover, or off with the pan!!!

 

I did the same thing one time, that huge oil return hole in the back of the lifter valley can be a pain sometimes. Luckily for me, the crank was in such a position that the lifter wasn't able to totally fall into the hole and i managed to retrieve it with a long magnetic retriever. I'd get the flexible one, not the telescopic one, and see if I could fish around the bottom of the pan and manage to grab onto it.

 

is the lifter small enough to fit out the drain hole? if so, put a powerful magnet up agains the pan, move slowly in a cirlce, then to the drain plug, and try and get it out....

 

I've had that happen before.

The lifters can slide right through their bores if the cam isn't there, and into the cam tunnel, and drop right out of there into the crankcase.

From there, it could get stuck on the rods and the crank, or land on the baffle, or fall into the sump.

If the lifter made it all the way to the bottom of the sump, don't worry about it. It won't come out the drain hole.

If it didn't, but rather is sitting on the baffle in the front part of the pan, then the crank can hit it, and knock it through the pan.

In the case of the one that happened to me, I had a lifter with a rolled lobe, that wouldn't come out by pulling; so I pulled it up far enough to get the cam out. Then when I dislodged it downwards to remove it, I dropped it. Same deal. I heard it go "plink-plink" a couple of times off of rods, and then hit the pan. I though all was cool. After I got th emotor all buttoned back up, I reached in the window and fired it up; I heard this funky "thookk" kind of sound, didn't think too much of it. I went ahead and finished filling it with fluids, set the ignition timing, put the hood back on, etc., while it sat there and ran for the next 5 or 10 mintues. The car turned out to have a MASSIVE oil leak during the test drive. I got up under there expecting to see that I had got the timing cover not sealed to the pan properly; instead, I saw the end of that damn lifter sticking about ¼" out the side of the pan, about even with the #3 or #4 cyl. I felt like such a DORK. I ended up just cutting a little piece of sheet metal and spooging it onto the outside of the pan, after I pulled the lifter the rest of the way out.

On the other hand, if the lifter got stuck in the rods, it could cause a MAJOR malfunction like bending or breaking them if you try to start it. MAKE SURE it made it all the way down into the pan BEFORE you crank it up. If it did, then you've got nothing to worry about. If you didn't hear it hit the pan, DON'T try to start it until you've pulled the pan and dislodged it.

 

And taking the pan off isn't THAT bad. It is very frustrating, but it's only time that you're wasting.