removal of lifters
z28trick
10-31-2005, 09:11 PM
i have a 97 LT1 and a lifter has recently gone bad. can you remove it by taking off the valve covers and sliding it through the heads? or do you have to remove the intake and take it out of the lifter valley? and does it hurt the engine to run it with a ticking lifter? ....also does the motor have to be pulled to change the cam? if not then how?
silicon212
10-31-2005, 09:35 PM
You cannot remove a lifter without first removing the intake as they are located in the lifter valley under the intake. These have hydraulic roller lifters which have a retainer that keeps them in alignment - this retainer is bolted to the floor of the lifter valley. If a lifter is making a little ticking noise, and you're pretty sure it's collapsed, you can try adding some sort of detergent additive to the oil (there's stuff that frees stuck lifters) - I've found that a pint of Dexron III in the oil frees sticky lifters as well as cleans sludge out of the engine. If you do this, don't push the engine and change that oil and filter out after a couple hundred miles.
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A loose rocker will cause this noise too. Loose rockers are generally the result of wear in the valve train. You can tell if there's sufficient "slop" in the valve train for a particular valve by putting your finger along the top of any given rocker arm while the engine is running (with the valve cover off, running an engine like this can be messy). Any slop will manifest itself with a "hammering" sensation in the rocker - the motion should have a smooth feel with no hammering or bumping.
If the ticking/clicking is due to valvetrain component wear, you can adjust the rocker arms to remove the slop. You can idle the engine with a valve cover off, and then tighten, CAREFULLY, the nut in the rocker down, in 1/8 turn increments ONLY, up to a half turn max. If you do this please do ensure that you don't go wild on the adjustment while the engine is running. The engine will stumble a bit as the valves won't make a perfect seal for a few revolutions - wait until the engine recovers before adjusting more. If you overdo this, you could possibly bend a valve.
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A loose rocker will cause this noise too. Loose rockers are generally the result of wear in the valve train. You can tell if there's sufficient "slop" in the valve train for a particular valve by putting your finger along the top of any given rocker arm while the engine is running (with the valve cover off, running an engine like this can be messy). Any slop will manifest itself with a "hammering" sensation in the rocker - the motion should have a smooth feel with no hammering or bumping.
If the ticking/clicking is due to valvetrain component wear, you can adjust the rocker arms to remove the slop. You can idle the engine with a valve cover off, and then tighten, CAREFULLY, the nut in the rocker down, in 1/8 turn increments ONLY, up to a half turn max. If you do this please do ensure that you don't go wild on the adjustment while the engine is running. The engine will stumble a bit as the valves won't make a perfect seal for a few revolutions - wait until the engine recovers before adjusting more. If you overdo this, you could possibly bend a valve.
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