I have a 305 LG4 in my 87 Camaro. I rebuilt the top end of the motor .I had the cylinder heads replaned ,valve seals, three angle valve job ,and new valve springs. When I was checking my lifters which are rollers ,all looked fine no noticeable wear. I was unable to pull one of the #7 lifters out. The car runs fine when at idle ,but under load it lacks power ,and misses through out drive range. I did notice that I see white smoke. Could the miss or skip be associated with a possible head gasket leak or the lifter sticking? Also I noticed water leaking near converter. Leak runs down emmisions tube.

 

03,

Unfortunately, white smoke in the exhaust generally indicates a coolant leak into the cylinders. This could be from a bad head gasket, intake gastet, cracked head, case, or intake casting, or an improperly torqued head or intake.

If you have excessive coolant in a cylinder(s), that could easily account for you misfire and lack of power. The easiest way to determine where the problem may be is to perform a compresion test on all cylinders. A low cylinder would point to a head gasket leak of bad casting. Even compression might indicate a problem in sealing the intake.

Since your heads were resurfaced, I presume you also had the lower edge of the intake machined an equal amount. If not, the intake will not position correctly against the heads and cannot seal. This could account for the coolant leak near the rear of the engine, adn the white smoke, and the lack of power. If the intake was shaved to fit the milled heads, you still need to check the intake gaskets. It's pretty easy to inadvertently install them upside down so that the ports line up but the water passages don't.

In any case, if you have a coolant leak and can't find the problem, you'll probably be removing the intake again to at least check the gaskets. When you do, make sure you remove that last lifter for inspection. If it was varnished so badly that is would not come out of its bore, it could easily be varnished to the point of not admitting oil and adjusting length correctly. You really need to check it, and don't want to have to remove the intake again. It will be worth the extra effort just for the peace of mind.

 

I had a gut feeling that the intake was my problem. I did not get the intake plained ,but it did fit good. The problem I had was the front ,and back gaskets. I am going to pull it off after I do a compression check. When I do I will try ,and pull that lifter again. Any suggestions on how to pull from top??? If I damage it when pulling ,can I use another roller lifter? From what engines? Do parts stores sell singles? HELP