3rdCoastPowerSports

iTrader: (5)

a few of the lifters wont accept preload and appear to be frozen at the top. i know this is because their is oil or assembly lube trapped where the spring is. when i bolt the rockers down with these frozen lifters it causes those valves to hang. i know when i start the engine it will all pressurize and accept the proper pre determined pushrod preload, but the issue is that the valves hang open quite a bit and cause PTV problems so starting the engine like this is not an option. any help or tricks that anyone knows would be helpful. I don't want to have to pull the heads off just to tear apart the lifters to bleed them.
thanks


lifters are new/used (300 miles on them im told) LS7 lifters i think they are Eaton's

LS1-450

iTrader: (33)

Wow, never had this happen; weird. IDK, if you have an old pushrod (not being used) try heating the tip & then stick it down through the pushrod hole & onto the lifter. See if the heat reduces the viscosity of the lubricant enough to free 'em up. Leave it on there for a few minutes, then see if you can push the spring down.

salemetro

iTrader: (5)

Or put them in an oven @200* for 10 minutes, frost and enjoy!

JPH

iTrader: (2)

I would probably just roll the motor over a couple of times, and let the valve spring pressures bleed the oil out and free the plunger up for you.

S10xGN

iTrader: (11)

I bought a used set of Gen I Comp roller lifters once that were 'frozen'. Turned out they were full of gunk. Made a jig to hold them, put them in my 20T press and used an old pushrod and carb cleaner to unstick them. Once freed up, I soaked them in WD40 and plunged them numerous times with my jig until they flowed clean oil...

3rdCoastPowerSports

iTrader: (5)

tryed that, it helped out a tiny bit maybe allowed two of them to accept .020" (checked with dial indicator) of preload. I also turned the crank to compress the valve springs on the ones that were froze and left them for two days and nights but it didn't help at all. so i guess now the only option is to pull them back out disassemble them, clean them out, lube them up and then re-install.
im just pissed that i didn't buy the re usable ARP bolts the first time... now i have to buy new head bolts and i suspect new head gaskets... what do you think am i safe re-using the same head gaskets. I never started the motor just turned it over by hand?

LS1-450

iTrader: (33)

Hmmm..didn't you say that a PTV issue wouldn't allow the engine to be turned over due to no pre-load? Guess that wasn't really the case.

3rdCoastPowerSports

iTrader: (5)

I used a set of 7.350 pushrods to turn the motor over by hand and let the Vales be open on certain lifters to try to bleed them. Since then I have removed all rockers and push rods

3rdCoastPowerSports

iTrader: (5)

7.350 would be my zero lash length. I have 7.450 I want to run with

chrisfrost

iTrader: (8)

They are really easy to take apart and clean ,,,,,,,,,then I put about 5 or 6 drops of new oil in each 1 then put back together . You can do all 16 in about an hour ,,,,,,,,,no worries . Yes I would use the head gaskets again ,,,,,,,,,,,,they start out depending on which ones maybe .060" then You install them and they are say .058" , You take heads off and the gaskets stay pretty much right at .058" then You re-install the heads and the gaskets are again at .058" and they are not going to change ,,,,,,,,head gaskets are very durable . Just make sure not to damage them when removing and re-installing heads .

3rdCoastPowerSports

iTrader: (5)

cool, well re-using the head gaskets will save me a bit of cash. still i don't understand why some lifters compress while others don't budge at all. i checked over my old LS1 lifters that i removed from the motor and some of them push in easily while others don't move at all. i took one of them apart that didn't move at all, i removed the c clip, plunger and washer that was just under the plunger. the oil cavity was dry so i used a paper clip to push the check ball down and to the side while simultaneously pushing down on the lifter cylinder and out poped oil from the check ball compartment, after that the lifter worked normally.
So im sure this is what is wrong with my new lifters.

miker2

iTrader: (1)

based on your findings,if i ever encounter the problem,i'll try brazing an old pushrod to an air blowgun so i can reach down to the lifter and give it a blast while pushing. it'll be worth a try.