The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 248 I-6, LOST a VALVE LIFTER....

Just what it says, lost a stinking lifter. I looked on KANTER and they say I need to have 10-5/8" or 13-1/4" push rods to get the right lifter... Well mine are 12-7/8"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?! Someone give me some direction here. The lifter was lost over a decade ago, I want this motor running and not going to let 1 stupid lifter kill this project. I'll never find the lifter, and Kanter said sometimes there are odd ball engines for any given year, so "tough luck buddy". HELP.

So, do you have any idea of dimensions of your needed lifter? I have a parts engine?

Ed

GMC usd a long push rod until the mid 50's and went to a shorter push rod. The older lifter has the push rod going down in it and the newer style has a cup on top for the push rod and we call them the milk can lifter. Post a picture of another lifter. Both styles appear on eBay quite often. Used push rods are quite plentiful. Kanter is like most vendors. The guys that started the business knew their business. The people they hire now just don't care.

Rock auto probably still has what you are looking for. They still carry the milk jug lifters. Used lifters need to be resurfaced to make sure they have a crown or they won't spin. An old Sioux valve machine will do that, but few people know how to operate them.

I haven't found any reference to a radiused base on stovebolt or GMC tappets, anyone know of a source?
Based on the factory diagrams, the tappet will spin by virtue of the cam lobe being strongly offset to the tappet centerline.

All flat-tappet valve lifters have a slight convex radius, regardless of the vehicle manufacturer. Flat or concave bottom lifters are worn out.

My Black & Decker valve grinder has a fixture for reshaping the radius on rocker arm tips, but I don't recall seeing a similar fixture for regrinding lifters. I use a tool post grinder on a lathe to do that.
Jerry

These are just the plain lifter, not the milk jug. It's just a smooth barrel, with a flat top....I don't have any functional technology here to put a pic of it on for viewing. I need to measure it and put it on here that way and see if the other fellow has a spare in his parts motor.

And I can't tell any convex-ity of my lifters, I put a straight edge on it (them) and they look straight and flat. If they are really supposed to be convex and are now worn, does that mean the cam is worn too? In which case I say, nothing to lose, run it?

If nothing is chewed up, run it.

Flat is OK, as long as you don't intend to run it wide open with a heavy load for hours at a time. Yes, there will be a little cam wear, but that's why you always keep lifters sorted out by cylinder number and position and run them against the cam lobe they were on to begin with. Swapping used lifters around onto cam lobes they haven't been running with guarantees a very short lobe and lifter life.

Cupped lifters are a sign of a totally worn out cam and lifters. Time to scrap the whole assembly in that case and start over.
Jerry