I had the valve covers off the 390 today and the pushrods seemed to be spinning slow. At idle they were barely spinning at all. I fished one of the lifters out and the wear pattern looked fine too me. BTW, I took the adj rockers off one side and stuck the non adj on (also removed the Holley jet, oil restrictor), the slow spin stayed the same. BTW, when I switched rockers, the top end oil flooding stopped.

 

Any movement at all should be fine. It's not suppose to be "spinning" at any great rate. The rotation is just from the lifters turning in their bore. The lifter rotation just keeps it from wearing on one spot on the cam. We've all seen pictures of what happens when a lifter stops turning(cam eats thru bottom of lifter). The pushrod just is following the turning of the lifter(from the friction of the two touching).

 

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Thanks FT....I installed a brand new set of non adj. rockers today, and noticed that the lifters 'were' turning steadily, even tho the pushrods weren't.... I still get a little noise from a few of the Crane lifters. I've used Crane anti-pumpups two times now, and got lifter noise both times. That's never going to happen again!

 

I'm not familiar with what Crane "anti-pumpups" are, but if they are similar in function to the old Rhodes lifters, they're gonna make noise...nature of the beast.

 

I'm at 248K with Crane's anti-pump ups with no more noise than standard lifters. Only time i'll hear a tick is if the motor sat for more than 4 days and it lasts less than 2 seconds or 5 or 6 ticks until oil pressure is present.
On more than one new installation with these lifters I have encountered one that ticked on start up in the mornings or randomly ticked while running hot on idle. Random ticking sucks and hard to find.
Pulled offending lifter, disassembled, cleaned and reinstalled, tick gone. Before installing any new lifters be it TRW, Crane or others is to disassemble and clean each one at a time. You'll be surprised the amount of metallic particles on the bottom of your cleaning container. An hour well spent.

 

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They clatter for a few seconds when I first start it, worse if it sits for a few days. Thats ok, but that random tick on hot idle is what I hate. Are they hard to disassemble? Whats inside there? Thanks Beemer......

 

First off are you sure you have the proper preload on the lifters?
At idle if you add a .025" feeler gauge under each rocker / valve stem to locate the offender (clacker)?

The hard part is removing the offending lifter. I use a piece of brass stock 1/4" in diameter to compress the lifter and remove the clip holding it together.
You'll have the pushrod cup, piston plunger with a soft spring below. Flush out with solvent, air blast dry and reassemble, don't blast the spring into some dark hole in the shop you'll never find it again.
If your lucky a piece of crap is preventing the disk check valve, ball check if it's a Crane lifter from functioning properly.
To be safe while your in there is remove and clean all 16 of them but do not mix them up as cam and lifters have a worn in pattern.

 

Anti-pumpup lifters are prone to ticking...

The advantage of anti-pumpup lifters is if the valves float, the lifter doesn't immediately pump up and slam a valve into the piston.

To do that, they have to be somewhat wimpy in the first place.

It's pretty common for them to clack for a few seconds after startup. The one or two (or three) lifters that have the valves open while sitting will bleed out and then have to pump up again on startup. Clack clack clack...

However Carl is correct - the best thing to do is pull them apart before installation and clean them out. I don't know who manufactures them, but sheesh, they could at least get all the stray material out of them first.

 

You don't want to mix up lifter to cam lobe.
Depending on manufacture (was told by Crane) the plungers are select fit to the lifter body so again don't mix plungers.
I find it better to just add a few drops to the plunger and assemble, this makes it easy to collapse the lifters and set preload.
Before installing all the lifters pull the plugs and spin the motor a few seconds, just a precaution in case any dirt or crap is around the lifter bore to prevent it if any getting into a lifter and cause clacking again.
On Crane's anti-pumps I will hear two or three light ticks on startup once a couple of weeks or less on a daily driver, maybe one in 5 startups after sitting 3 or 5 days, I don't understand all this noise everyones talking about, long dry start times? I have oil press between 1 to 2 seconds every morning with a HV pump and FT pan and the fast idle is only 625 rpms at light off.