Hello everyone
This question is about my truck, a 1965 F-350 with the 352 in it. Over christmas break, I had the head pulled to have two valves reground and seated correctly. It also has new lifters and pushrods on that cylinder (#1) but all the other pushrods and lifters were not replaced. Both the pushrods and lifters were the same length as the old pushrods and lifters. when I reassembled it, the new pushrods stuck out a good .25 inches further than the old ones, so when I torqued the rocker shaft down the valves on that cylinder were open. So my question is this. did they make lifters with different strenghts or something? they looked the exact same as the old ones. or is there some other problem that I am not seeing that is making the valves open. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Garrett Schorran

 

did the lifter bleed down ?

 

aahhh....
kind of a dumb question: do you have to do anything to the lifters to get them to bleed down, or will they go on their own? Also, how long does this take. I did have the rocker shaft torqued down for a bit (like, 1 minute max if that) before i loosened it. I didnt even think about having them bleed down. Thanks for the help
Garrett

 

Well I will spread Carls advice as it was dead knuts.. even new these lifters should be broken down and cleaned to assure they're crud free from milling particles etc. This may cause binding if there is junk in there and it's quite likely there is,. Using a pushrod to push the plunger in should work easily unless it's full of oil. Even then it should slowly bleed down. Put them in empty,(lightly coated in oil) is the advice I have been given. Makes checking the preload much easier as they bleed down effortlessly.

 

Bleed down has nothing to do with this issue. If it's holding the valve open, it's the wrong parts. You need to compare the lifters again, as the pushrods should be easy to compare lengths.

 

When the lifters came, I checked the height of them with the other lifters, and they were the same height. (although, since it gave me problems, I will recheck them.) Redmanbob, when you say that the lifters should be broken down, do you mean taken apart? Are the two little metal rods that seem to sit on top of the divot that the pushrod sits in some sort of a snap ring? Again, taking them apart never even crossed my mind. And Freighttrain, even if the lifters are physically the same height, did they make ones with different "travel" or something?
I truly appreciate the help I'm getting, Thanks
Garrett

 

Ya, that little snap ring holds the guts in. No real need to pull them apart.
The outside height is not so critical is the height of the "seat"(plunger held in by snap ring).

Does the new ones bottom out when you put rocker shafts on? You should be able to physically push the plunger down using a pushrod in your hand. It will be pretty stiff, but movable.

Do you have the part numbers of the lifters you got? Maybe someone needs to cross them to make sure they are the right ones? Yes, they make a few variations, but not really sure what they change on them. Side by side, same outside height? How about after pushing plunger down?

When you buy lifters "new" they are not filled with oil, thus they are "bled down". This means the plunger will compress down to bottom of travel. Once they get oil pressure when motor is running, it holds the seat UP, removing the slack. That is why hydraulic lifters are quiet.

 

Yeah I agree with larry, they could be the same length on the outside..but machined on the inside to a shorter plunger depth...Making the pushrods now stand up taller..but 1/4" is alot tho... JMO...

RJ

 

Here's a kicker............are we sure it's not a solid lifter? The ones in my 428 are Windsor? lifters, they look like regular lifters, only solid(I think they still have snap ring, only no piston inside, just a solid slug). Maybe that is what he has?

The original FE solid lifters were "dumbells", which had a large undercut in the center making them look like dumbells. Not sure, depending on what/where he purchase his replacements if someone didn't get him the wrong ones.

 

I guess the only way to actually tell is to take a new and an old lifter apart and measure how deep they are machined out. I did try to push the new lifters down with a pushrod when I first got them, and it didnt seem to move, but I wasnt really trying too hard. Also, I ordered them along with a couple other things from a particular establishment, and almost everything was sent back because it was the wrong size. It is quite possible they gave me a solid lifter or something like that. Unfortunatly, I am down at school right now, and probably wont be home again till next weekend. So I cant check yet. But when I do get home, and happen to find that they are the wrong lifters, how do I make sure that I am sent the correct ones? Is there any particular place that people like to buy internal engine parts from? I havent had too much luck with that so far. I dont remember there being a part number on the lifters: Are there? The help has been good so far guys, I appreciate it.
Keep it comming
Garrett

 

Make sure they are not solid lifters! My guess is when they cut the 2 valve seats the valve stem is now up farther this will cause the valve to hang open unless you use a shorter pushrod.

 

.25" cut in the seat is some serious cutting man. Ebay has a few folks worth looking at maddog, alex parts, and a few others.. I have dealt with the two mentioned and was happy. I'd pull things out for a look and get to the bottom of it.. let us know what you find please.

 

Not too make light of a bad situtation, But how the sam hell could a parts man be so dumb as to mistake a solid lifter for a hydraulic one....Ohhh wait...Dont answer that...

I bet thats exactly what happened !! Because the rocker assy should have put enough pressure on the lifters to collapse them IF indeed they are Hydraulics...and of course they would budge with solids..... I bet thats what it is.......

 

I asked if they bled down for a reason... wasn't sure what that was really but thanks for confirming it Larry LOL

 

There is a very good chance that I was sent the wrong lifters, because I was also sent an 11 in clutch disk, a 10 in. pressure plate (duh) and the wrong size piston rings, and I had pushrods and valves ordered from this place and they kept pushing the delivery date back and back until I finally sent all the parts that were the incorrect size and canceled the rest of my order. I'm not making this up, but when I ordered parts from this place, the sales woman asked me "What is a pushrod?" I wouldnt be the least bit suprised to find that its a solid lifter.
I wont be home for at least a week, so as soon as I get into the thing I will post back and let you know what I find. Thanks so much for the help
Garrett