Hey Guys,

I just finished re-storing my '64 F100, and rebuilt my 400. The problem I'm having is that 2 of my hydraulic lifters won't stay primed. I've tried longer pushrods, loosening and retightening the rockers as the engine is running, swapped out one of the lifters...even tried cursing at it! Any ideas on how I can stop this tick,tick,tick,tick,tick.......??!!

I've read in some of the postings about the shims under the rockers, how and were do I find some info on these?

Thanx,

Jay

 

Shims under the rockers would only make it worse, What I use to do was put the lifter in a bowl full of oil and pump them up before I installed them.

 

I've had guys tell me that they won't fill with oil by soaking them because there is no pressure to force the oil into the lifter. If you say you've done it before, I'm willing to try anything!!

Thanks,

Jay

 

Like shazam said, you need to pump them up while submersed in oil. Stick something in the plunger while the lifter's in the oil and force it down and let it come back up several times.

 

Now that makes sense to me, when the plunger is compressed it will push all the air out of the lifter and when the plunger comes back up, it has no choice but to fill with oil!!! That sounds so simple but I've been to 3 different machine shops and none of the engine assemblers gave me that idea. Maybe it's some big trade secret to keep the driveway Mech's from doing their own work.

After I take the lifter out of the jug of oil, the oil should stay in the lifter right? or is there something I have to do to keep it in there?

Thanks guys,

Jay

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 01-May-02 AT 02:43 PM (EST)] I hate to tell you this but you cannot hand pump lifters up as hard as the engine can. It's doing it a lot quicker and more often. When you do it by hand there is no pressure going in, only suction. I've never even been able to get them fully primed by hand pumping. What weight oil are you using? Good oil pressure?


Bear Tracks

 

I have an old edelbrock cam I pulled out of my ford and when I put this cam in it came with a warning do not pump up lifters that it will cause damage to the valve train. I will gladly email a pic of this card to any one who does not believe me. I have had plenty of people tell that this card does not exists, but I found it the other day. Not to say all cam manufacturers are the same. I am now going with the comp 265 DEH cam on this motor and it did not say a thing about pumping up the lifters. So that might be a edelbrock thing. Thought you might want to know this.:-)

 

have you tried rhoades lifters?

 

Jay, did you change or check the rocker arms? It does not take much wear for these to tick, tick, tick, when running. I have run on to these many times where people thought they had bad lifters and it was just the pushrods and or rocker arms that were worn out. Just an idea to throw out there.

 

Jay,
Your ticking lifterws wouldn't happen to be located at cylinder number 7 or 8, would it? - Don, New York

 

I found my ticking sound, it's not the lifter like the machine shop told me. It's the valves, there were cut too short when the heads were rebuilt and the rockers weren't pushing down on the valves, they were pushing down on the spring cap. I found this out the hard way, on a different valve, the rocker pushed down on the spring cap and the keepers slipped out. Needless to say, the valve dropped, hit the top of the piston, bent and broke the lower part of the valve guide off(3 pieces broke off). So, as we speak, my heads that have approx. 57 miles on them are at a different machine shop getting new valves put in them. I had to go to a different shop because the shop that rebuilt the engine for me went out of business a year ago. (I've had the engine sitting in my garage for 1-1/2 years waiting for the rest of my truck to be complete.)

I love my old Ford but I think she's goin' to get the best of me!!!!


Thanks for your info guys!

Jay