I was able to run my engine yesterday and get the new lifters broke in to the cam. There was some noise at the beginning but after a few minutes the noise stopped. I drove the pickup around for a few hours and so far so good. Looks like the new Napa (cleveite) lifters did the trick.

Jeff

 

If that worked, you had carbon deposits on your piston, head, and or valve. THIS WILL NOT FREE A STUCK LIFTER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. This can be done with water as it gives more impact than atf without leaving a film. There is NO ROUTE from the throttle bore to the lifters. However, carbon deposits can cause a tick similar to lifter rattle.

 

When this is done the engine is going to put out allot of smoke, so do this in a very well vented area. The valve train is going to basically turn into a steam room of automatic transmission fumes thus cleaning the stuck lifter off and freeing it up. My father taught this to me along time ago. Did it work every time No, Did it free up some stuck lifters Yes. It's worth a try before you take the engine apart to replace the lifter. Most of the time we only would replace the one stuck lifter, if the engine needed new lifters most of the time it needed more than just lifters.\

So you want to call me out as providing false statements, Watched my dad do this and have done it myself. Did it free up some stuck lifters Yes. Did it work every time No!
If you have carbon build up on your pistons it is not from a few to 5 seconds of AT into the carb.
I have been working on this motor now for 38 years, I would not hesitate for a second to try and unstick a lifter by using AT before I went and tore into engine to replace lifter. This is not a repair I would do to a race motor or someone whom has spent allot of money on a motor. Some ones daily driver that has a stuck lifter this will work and have seen it done and done it myself. It Works! I learned this from my father back in 1970's while working at his used car lot.

Here is another tip you can take and chew on for a while. Flooded street
Lady has a Cadillac in about two feet of water, engine won't start.
My father tells me to go get a small coffee can full of kerosene.
While I attemped to start engine my father poured kerosene ontop of distributor.
Engine fired right up and I drove it out of water.
Gave car back to lady she drives off.

 

There is no legitimate reason that pouring anything down the intake will free a stuck lifter. If lifters come unstuck, while pouring something down the carburetor, it's completely incidental. There is literally no way for anything poured down the intake, to get to the lifters on pretty much any engine, unless your valve seats, guides, and seals are just so absolutely wiped, that it's sucking or blowing that liquid up into the valve covers, and then draining down the pushrods. Which is highly unlikely.

I'm not doubting that A) Your Father did this, or B) that sometimes lifters would free up while it was happening. But it didn't have anything to do with the ATF going down the intake. It had to do with the engine running, and circulating oil, and eventually warming everything up enough, that the lifters started moving in their bores again. You literally could have been pouring *anything* that wouldn't kill the engine, down the intake. It's not the fluid, it's heat and the pressurized oiling system.

The other issue being, a stuck lifter, and a collapsed lifter are two entirely different issues, which can sound exactly the same. And I would generally bet good money, you were dealing with collapsed lifters, more often than stuck ones, unless we're talking about engines that had just been sitting for a good long time without running.

 

OK you win it doesn't work for you! got it!