Does anyone know where to get an install guide for lifters. I have a ticking one and would like to replace them all as I do a cam swap but just not too sure how to go about adjusting them and what not. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Go on LS1howto and look up the heads/cam swap guide since you need to pull the heads to replace the lifters.

 

Hey thx for the reply. I've been reading through them guides for the last year, which is what I will be using when I do change the lifters as well as my cam swap, but they don't go into much detail about the lifters. I understand that they just "slide" in. But is their any adjusting to make sure they start in the correct position as the motor turns or how does that work?

 

They just drop in. Soak them in oil for awhile before putting them in. Once you get the heads off, remove the four lifter trays (one screw each), then you can pull out the lifters by hand, or I like to use a magnet pen. Pull out the lifters before pulling the cam, that way you won't have to worry about dropping a lifter into the engine. Then put the new lifters in after put the new cam in. Some break in lube on the lifter rollers and cam lobes is never a bad idea, but it's not necessary. Make sure the lifter roller lined up with the cam lobe and put the trays back on. The trays won't go on if the lifter isn't lined up. The direction of the oiling hole on the lifter body does not matter from what I've been told.

This is a great book to buy also:

 

If thats the case, awesome! Which is how others say to do it, but this guy here: at around 4 mins into the video, does an adjustment section to putting in lifters, just wondering if this takes play in the ls as well

 

The only adjusting you can do in on the lifter preload which is done by using different lengths of pushrods. You should get an adjustable pushrod to measure the pushrod length you need. Do a search on this if you need more info.

 

Tyler, this is the reason for my build that I am currently working on right now. I had a bad lifter as well. Here is a picture of the lifter that I got out Thanksgiving weekend:



I know mechanics say that doing all of this work will take one day, but that's not the case if this is your first time doing the job. I've been working on my build while battling college and 35-40 hours of work. I'm currently on my 2nd week on this project and just now getting the heads back on.

Here's a picture of what it'll look like once you get the heads off:



When you take your heads off, there's going to be a gasket residue that is stuck to the sides of your block. Cleaning this takes roughly about four hours or just scrubbing down all of the gunk. Very crucial to get all of this off. If not, you risk blowing a head gasket which means you have to take all of the stuff back off, clean again, and then try again. Also cleaning the heads takes a while in itself. Probably took me about two hours with the help of another person. I mentioned you considering getting 243 heads or something of the nature for this build simply because this is a lot of work, and it'll save you time down the road. 243 heads give roughly about 20 horsepower gain. It'll also give you better performance from that cam that you have. Speaking from my own experience, I don't plan on doing a job like this for a while simply because it's so much work and I've been out of a car for a while now because of the project. My TA is my daily driver.

On the sides, that top rectangular looking piece is where the lifter trays are. There will be two on each side. I simply removed the lifters with some pliers then took out the lifter trays.

Before you put your new lifters back in, be absolutely sure to have let them soak in oil for at least over night. FerocityO2 recommendation on ls1howto.com is purely gold. Go to the head/cam swap on the RHS, and you will find everything that you need.

Pretty much what Ferocity has been saying. Just wanted to share my .02 and some pictures. Good luck on your build dude.

EDIT: It will be somewhat hard to distinguish which lifter is bad when you first take them out. Once the oil dries up, well.. you see how my picture looks. Hahah.

 

OK awesome, this makes me feel better. I will deff be calculating in a pushrod checker into my costs. It seems as much as I search lifter swap guides, all I ever seem to find are head removals, I guess this is because once the head is off it seems you just drop the lifters in. So that all sounds good! Thanks again for your help!

 

Thx for the tips, especially the cleaning one. As much as I would love to go ahead and purchase some heads, it just is not in the budget as of right now but the tick my lifter is giving me bugs me so much that I want it fixed asap.

Luckily, im in high school still and don't work a ton of hours, and I actually plan on taking a week off work to hopefully knock this job out.

Do you recommend new lifter trays, my car only has 76k miles on it?

 

Yes, they are pretty cheap and become brittle with age. The LS2 lifter trays are a bit beefier than the stock LS1 trays.

 

I agree with everything here except soaking the lifters. This will fill the lifter with oil and make for a nightmare setting the valves. It will throw your torque reading off when your tightening the rocker bolts and most likely cause the valves to hang on initial start up.

There is a check ball in the lifter that keeps lets oil in but prevents it from flowing out (within reason). Once it is full of oil, it will take a while to flow out and the lifter to gain proper preload. That's the last thing you want on start up.

A simple coat of oil or assembly lube before dropping them in will suffice and you can be sure all your measurments are correct.

 

LS2 Lifter trays are only 32 bucks. Yeah, I'd definitely recommend them. Pretty much what everyone else said about the LS2 Lifter Trays is what I feel as well. Can't go wrong with only 32 dollars. They're only sold as 1 unit, so be sure to order 4.

As for the soaking of the lifter itself in oil. It's what ls1howto said to do and it's what I do. It's also what my grandfather who worked on a ton of cars in the past used to do. Should be alright here.

As for the cleaning of the block. My grandfather left just a small smidge of gunk on a block before and had to go back and redo everything because of a blown head gasket on one of the older cars he worked on back in the day. My best advice is get a lot of stuff off (gunk stuff). Do other things. Come back, work at it again, and keep doing this until you finally don't catch anything. It's what I did. Usually patience wears out after a while if you just do it in one straight job without breaks.

 

To each his own, but soaking the lifters has absolutely no positive result over installing them dry, so why risk it?

 

When torquing down the rockers, the lifters will begin to bleed out oil from the valve spring pressure and preload on them. It will not cause the valves to stick open unless the lifter isn't on the base circle. From what I've done personally, the lifters only take 5-10 seconds to bleed down after pressure is put on them. It doesn't make it anymore difficult to determine pushrod length since this is done when the lifter plunger is at the very top. It also doesn't affect torquing down the rockers. The rocker will compress the lifter and/or spring long before reaching 22ft-lbs. Although I will say that the rocker should be torqued with the lifter on the base circle to avoid damaging the threads. Soaking them in oil ensures the internals are coated with oil before startup. Chances are after turning the engine over by hand a few times during the install the lifters will bleed out most of their oil, but there will still be a good coating on the insides.

 

That's why the oil system is pre lubed before initial start up. There is no viable reason or benefit for soaking the lifters. It will only create the potential for more problems...why risk it?

 

This could not be further from the truth...

If your trying to torque the bolt that has the rocker pushing back on it that is being pushed up by the spring and oil pressure, you WILL get a false torque reading.

 

Y'all are making this way to complicated. Torque should have nothing to do with this procedure...although I understand how it can be used. Place the cam on base circle, install pushrod checker close to the minimum length (if it's bottomed out, sometimes it's hard to start turning), torque rockers (not really needed), adjust checker to zero lash. Depending on the pushrod manufacture chosen, take a simple over-all length and add preload. Or, count the number of turns it takes to bottom out the adjuster, multiply the turns by the thread pitch, add the minimum length, then add preload. Either way you use should net close to the same length.

I use an indicator and base from an old comp cams degree kit on top of the rocker arm to verify 0 lash. Place the indicator centered and as close to parallel to the pushrod as possible, spin the checker while moving up and down until there is no more movement in the indicator. Unbolt, measure, add preload, and order pushrods. I prefer Manton.

Hydraulic lifters are shipped pre-pumped up from the factory. Soaking them in oil sometimes evacuates trapped air that is often introduced in shipment etc. Having the lifter pumped up is only necessary when trying to verify rocker wipe using a very weak checker spring. Ideally, you want a hydraulic that is shimmed into a solid. Any movement in the plunger during this procedure will throw off the rocker geometry. Of course, checking wipe is done at zero lash.

 

Sounds good! Getting ready to order my parts, just so sad to see the money go lol. Anyways, I've got a buddy who has a ford lightning with 700+ hp that he built, as well as a built falcon running 8's in the quarter, so he knows what hes doing when it comes to a motor and I will be having him stand over my shoulders as I install the new parts to make sure everything is done properly, just dont want him to do it, otherwise ill never learn.

Thanks again for all your help!