The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Noisy lifter

'53 full pressure 235 with 22K miles. The engine has spent most of it's life just sitting. One lifter is noisy when cold and stops tapping after a few minutes. It's been just over a year and two oil changes. I'd hoped it was just a piece of debris and would eventually flush out with the clean oil but that hasn't happened yet. What's the chances this will eventually self resolve?

Probably not. I would try Jerry’s diesel flush method. Three qts of diesel in the crankcase along with your oil and high idle for 15-20 minutes. No driving or load on the engine. Drain while hot and change the filter. Fresh oil of your choice and go for a drive. It’ll be clean enough to eat off of on the inside and everything will be thoroughly lubed.🛠

It may be air in the lifter. Pre68Dave has a fix for that on his site:
http://chev235guy.blogspot.com/search/label/Hydraulic%20Lifter%20Noise
Although the engine oil flush may cure the problem.

I had brand new everything on my hydraulic lifters and could never get them to stop tapping, also grooved the push rods, nothing would cure it. Finally converted back to solids and as strange as it seems, they are quieter than the hydraulics. Plus the solids tick not tap like that noisy hydraulic did.

I had a brand new Ford Fiesta back in the seventies with noisy lifters. Dealer said it was natural but none of the others I listened to were that noisy. So, even under warranty, I opened the valve covers, tightened each lifter nut about a quarter turn, and quite as a sewing machine.

It may need adjusting like Des says. The parts may be wore down enough that the plunger is at the end of the cyl. After it warms up the expantion takes up the slack.
Or just changing the position might do it.
George

I have the same engine with similar mileage on a complete rebuild. It has one lifter which does the same thing yours does. The significant tapping goes away once the engine warms up, then runs as quiet as a mouse.
I had a discussion with pre-68 Dave about this particular issue and he said that this particular issue is not due to air trapped in the lifter and would not be fixed by making grooves in the end of the pushrod.
You either have to live with it or pull the lifter, disassemble and repair it or buy a new lifter.

Chances are all repo lifters are off shore, so good luck on getting any satisfaction with that one. Just bought a delco remy dimmer switch and it literally fell apart in my hand taking it out of the box. Made in Taiwan.

It's likely an OEM lifter given the history of the vehicle.

I would not use the diesel flush method to clean it when running. I did this once on an old Cadillac V8 with disasterous results. Spun a rod bearing, ruined the crank. Also be wary of replacing the lifter that has work hardened and "worn in" to that cam lobe. I would start by adjusting the lifter by the book and failing that removing the lifter, disassembling it and cleaning it in whatever your rubber gloves can stand up to. Look for a collapsed or broken spring under the check ball, a pitted check ball or seat. You can replace the internal parts of the lifter except the inner piston which is likely a lap fit to the bore. I would avoid replacing the lifter body if possible.

If you must replace the lifter body make sure that it is the proper material (chilled iron, steel, etc.) Then make sure weather the cam is ground flat or tapered. If it is tapered make sure the lifter it is ground to a crown shape and is not flat. If they are flat and the cam is tapered, they will gall one side of the lobe and/or the edge of the lifter, making short work of the cam. Many cams are ground to a 1 or possibly 2 degree offset from square with the line of the cam bearings. The object is to make the lifters rotate, reducing wear.

On a past job, I was able to grind a 1 degree crown on flat lifters that had been on another cam, which had been ground flat for reasons I no longer remember. I used a fine paper on a bench-mounted belt/disc sander with the table set to 1 degree. I checked them with a machinists square and magnifying glass under a bright light. I used cam-assembly lube and observed break-in procedures. The cam has been in the engine about 10 years and about 100,000 miles. If you are careful you can successfully do a lot of hand fitting.

I someone knows of specific years/cams that are ground flat, please weigh in here.

I know the Old Dominion Stovebolters seem to have the nicest sounding trucks. Every year, they have a reunion where they work on trucks and have demos. Someone did a demo on adjusting the lifters and they all lined up to do theirs. I wasn't there, but I could hear the difference.

Factory original new "milk can" solid lifters do not have a crown- - - -they're totally flat across the bottom. We spent a lot of time checking that with a precision machinist's square on the lifters we installed while building John's 261 about a year ago. The lifter bores on a stovebolt six are slightly off center on the cam lobes, which promote the lifters rotating as the cam lobe contacts the lifter. Hydraulic cams have a very short acceleration ramp, usually less than .005", compared to the ones on a solid cam that takes up the adjustment gap before starting the rapid lift of the valve off its seat. There's no way to swap hydraulic lifters to solids or vice versa because of a completely different cam lobe profile.

If a rod bearing failed during a properly done solvent flush, the problem was there to begin with. I've done the Diesel flush at least 50 times with no failures so far.
Jerry

No only is it ill advised to swap solids for hydraulic lifters or vise versa for the reasons HRL mentioned but on some truck engines the lifter gallery is not drilled for oil for hydraulic lifters (I don't know which ones but I have one). A hydraulic cam in such an engine will drive you crazy with the racket with either type lifter. The solids can be set at something like 0.002 or maybe 0.003 with acceptable noise but you have to adjust the valves about every other day. The hydraulics simply cannot be made quiet.

I had this happen to me after someone else replaced the cam and timing gear with a stock hydraulic-grind cam using the original solid lifters. The fiber timing gear had broken and I was in a jam and needed someone else to work in the truck, which had been towed in. After putting up with the noise for a couple of months, spring came to the shade tree and I swapped cams for a solid lifter version.