The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Removal of lifters in a 235' 6 cyl?

A friend of mine with a possible hydraulic lifter or too, needs to be replaced. I believe he has to remove 1 of the rocker shafts just to replace one of the lifters is that true? Actually what would be the best way to do this without putting a lot of load on the shaft and the other rocker arms. Probably start with say # 1 back those there lifters off then go to # 6? Need a bail out here Bolters.. Thank you......

You don't have to remove the rocker shaft to change a lifter. Loosen the adjustment lock nut and remove the push rod, The side cover on the motor has to be removed to access the lifter. There is a tool made for removing the lifter, you can probably rent from a parts store. Soak them good with some carb cleaner. The lifters sometimes are kind of tough to remove, as they tend to get mushroomed on the bottom.

If the lifter is mushroomed at the bottom enough to make it difficult to remove, you can count on having a badly worn camshaft as well. Replacing a lifter will be a short term band-aid fix.
Jerry

Before going to the work of replacing lifters have a look at my blog post about hydraulic lifter niose.

Good post, Dave. As noted in your blog, lifter noise at low rpm is usually caused by gum deposit from the oil. I have had some success cleaning the gum with a can of Rislone. Rislone is a detergent that is added to the oil, preferably with fresh oil. It is not a quick fix, the engine has to ran, at speed, for a few hundred miles.

I will not recommend replacing individual lifters. If the lifters are having issues beyond what can be cured in Dave's blog, all lifters should be replaced. Most likely the camshaft is worn and will need replacement. Putting new lifters on a worn results in new, worn lifters.

Whats so strange about this is the engine runs exceptionaly well but maybe it is not a lifter? I looked at Pre '68 Dave's blog on making a groove in the end of the pushrods, maybe we will try that? I still have 2 lifters that you can push them down about an 1/8 of an inch, and my engine makes some noise around say 1500 - 1700 rpm's. it runs well also..... Maybe over the holidays I'll get out my little dremel and do a little groove grinding.

If you can compress those two lifters they've got some air in them which is not being purged out while running. Do the pushrod grooving, and if the lifter cup doesn't have the bleed hole in the middle, put a groove in the side of it like the blog mentions. The lifters have to be completely full of oil to work properly.
Jerry