After a 25 year career at various dealerships as a tech and a service writer...some things I never asked about and so...don't know about.

Just exactly what is a collapsed lifter? Just finished a stock rebuild, the whole nine yards, from the crank on up. I had to rebuild it because it spun a rod bearing (#3) and was knocking purty good. I had replaced the lifters and p-rods not long ago so those I re-used but not before checking for straight and true with the p-rods and since the lifters (and cam) showed no wear whatsoever.....I cleaned the lifters.

Individually, I disassembled each lifter completely, found no metal or other debris inside but sure did get an education. Afterward, I did submerge each one in motor oil and pump it till no more bubbles came out of the oil passage hole on the side.

Now they are pretty stiff but you can depress them somewhat with a LOT of push. So I'm guessing these are "pumped up". What though is a collapsed lifter and how can you tell? What is the symptoms of a collapsed lifter? I'm just really curious.
Mike

 

In my case, when I replaced the lifters a few years ago, it was from sludge and sediment in the engine. It'd sat for four years, so a lot of that oil had caked pretty hard.

The oil inside the lifters became hardened/sticky, and when the plunger was depressed, it didn't return. So, they were pretty much stuck in their "down" position, effectively turning them into solid lifters. I imagine some very thorough cleaning could have fixed them, but I didn't try.

I can imagine they could collapse from damage too.

 

Unless you kept those lifters in order--exact order--of which lifter sat on which cam lobe, then you need to throw them away. The cam lobes are mated to particular lifters, and if you mix them up you could in short order destroy your cam. Rule #1 I learned as a kid: never reuse lifters.

Did you run a wire then bottle brush through the crank oil passages? block passages? Did your machinish ck and if needed recondition your rods? with appropriate bearings installed after?

IMO, using your old cam, t.gears, oil pump, rockers, p.rods to a lesser degree, v.springs, w/pump, is asking for trouble. You don't know when any of those could fail due to years of use. Replacing them is a cheap insurance policy, and peace of mind. And remember, the #1 cause of rebuilt engine failure? An old, partially clogged radiator.

I read about a guy whose machinist showed him the tiny grooves years of wear on a rocker arm caused in the p.rod cup, which also affects oil psi.

Good luck. P.S. Cranking your engine w/o coil wire on will also pump up your lifters, w/o need to soak them. A clasped lifter: put your p.rod into the lifter and push. If you have a spring action, then it is not clasped.

 

I agree with you about replacing used and worn engine parts, the only parts I reused were ones that I checked meticulously for instance, the oil pump. I took it apart, and checked it with a feeler gauge according to all the specs on hand rotor assembly was great, also well within specs i.e. inner to outer rotor clearance and rotor to housing clearance. The housing was clean, no scratches and all good to go. NO WAY was I going to put this engine together with worn-out parts or parts where the specs, run-out, or clearances were borderline. I replaced ALL those parts.

The truck will not start. On the engine stand as a short block a few days ago; I made sure (with a magnetic dial indicator no less) that #1 was at TDC and that the punch marks on the cam and crank were lined up dead nuts, perfectly. Then marked the position of the dist. rotor on the cap and made that point #1 and followed the firing order around on the cap. I've got great compression and after getting basically delirious, checked each individual plug wire for fire, all good. I know that there is no fuel in the carb yet but after a bit of a splash into the carb, I would have expected it to fire and run at least for a few seconds, no joy. I'm stumped, damn!

 

I would guess that you have the distributor 180 degrees out. Pull the spark plugs, and crank by hand, and when the #1 piston starts to come up, watch the t. idex and as the mark approaches, put your finger over the s. plug hole so you can feel if it is on its compression stroke. If not, turn it another 180 degrees until you have it on tdc on compression stroke. Then pull out the dizzy, and line up rotor with the #1 plug.

You want to be just a tad advanced, about 10 degrees. Also, ck that the f.pump is working ... disconnect line and put in a coke bottle, then crank engine.