Lazy lifter

[DeeVeeEight]

I have a lazy hydraulic lifter on my rebuilt Buick 350. All new parts, cam too and we get a bum lifter, it taps pretty bad on start up until oil pressure builds. I am sending the car back to the machine shop in a few days to have the lifter(s) replaced. Does the cam need to be replaced too, could it have been damaged by the lazy lifter?

 

[MYBAD79]

Flat tappet ?? Hopefully it didn't damage the cam during the "break in". If it's fine once oil pressure is up then there's a good chance the cam is fine, have a good look at the cam when the lifter is out.

 

[DeeVeeEight]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[TimAT]

With low miles, there's a good chance just a lifter change will fix it.

Look closely at the cam when the lifters are out. Wear will already show as pitting of the lobe and the bottom of the lifter will look likes it's cupping, from the ones I've seen anyway. And since your noise goes away after the oil gets moving, I'd bet there's a problem with one lifter anyway. IF you pop the snap ring out of that lifter, turn it over and the plunger, oil metering disc, and spring should fall out. Look for any trash inside it.

 

[mrvette]

With low miles, there's a good chance just a lifter change will fix it.

Look closely at the cam when the lifters are out. Wear will already show as pitting of the lobe and the bottom of the lifter will look likes it's cupping, from the ones I've seen anyway. And since your noise goes away after the oil gets moving, I'd bet there's a problem with one lifter anyway. IF you pop the snap ring out of that lifter, turn it over and the plunger, oil metering disc, and spring should fall out. Look for any trash inside it.

Long time ago, in another land far away, I did the impossible, according to many guys,.....I didn't know any better, I pulled a set of heads off a '67 GTO, and put them on a old Pontiac 350 engine, complete with induction, exhaust, and so never kept the lifters in any order, as I swapped in the cam too....

so it ran....something like another 200k miles before the oil pump ran up the red flag saying enough already.....stupid engine didn't know when to quit....vehicle was sold to a friend who used it as a delivery car, which is why the miles....

:clobbered::nuts: