Hey Guys,

doing a valvetrain upgrade here and i have the intake off, noticed that almost half of my lifters are hard and the others are compressable, took those out and placed in oil, used a pushrod to compress one of the "soft" ones and i can't get them to harden up. Happening to a few of them actually, does this mean the lifters are faulty?

The car has been laid up for a few months, I dunno if that helps. They were new speed pro hydraulic lifters.

Kinda stuck here,

Thanks
Geoff

 

if they are fairly new i wouldn't think they would be bad. can you prime the oil pump with a drill? they should stiffen up.

 

I have a old dizzy that I could modify to prime the motor, shouldn't they "pump up" in a bath of oil forcing the air out? I tried a few different lifters and they weren't getting any stiffer at all.

I'm at a standstill because I don't wanna lash those valves with lifters that may not prime up.

 

if you're unsure about the lifters replace them. i've bought lifters from autozone in packs of 4.

 

CompCams specifically recommends NOT priming the lifters. You'll find that in their catalogs and during interviews with their engineers. They say it causes errors in setting the lifter preload.

Jake

 

Keep in mind the lifters will compress as you've seen. However if the cam is in such a position where it is trying to lift the valve associated with that lifter it will already be compressed and will feel hard. The same is true with the soft ones. They are most likely not in a position where they are trying to operate a valve therefore they should be uncompressed giving them a soft feel.

 

Hey rolling...

that actually makes sense to me now i think of it, I did manage to modify my old distributor to prime the motor for a good 20 mins, taking breaking so i didn't blow up the drill.

I think my lifters are in good shape, the car has only been driven up and down the street. I've been working on it for a few years now. I'll do a oil change since I did get water in the motor with the intake off, i'll then prime the motor with the fresh stuff.

Thanks guys for your help,

Geoff