so i had posted up a little while ago about my engine making some tapping/rattle noise. i pulled the valve covers and checked the drivers side springs, rods, and rockers and all seemed to be good some now im thinking its a bad lifter. the sound seems like its pretty obvious that its coming from the driver side so i didnt bother messing with the passenger side yet. question is, should i go through the hassel of pulling the heads my self or pay the shop. i understand its not an easy fix but i dont want to drop $1k plus for a bad lifter when i plan on putting a new short block in anyway. i guess what im really asking is in your experience what should a lifter replacement cost as far as labor goes.

i have a daily driver so the car can sit i dont need a quick turn around but if its going to be a huge pain to do myself, and going to cost me an arm and leg for the shop to replace a set of lifters i might just wait and hold out for the short block. thoughts??

 

Turn the engine over by hand. see if all the valves are moving the same or if some don't seem to be as much as others. To change the lifters in only a couple days doing part time after work. You should be able to have the heads off in 3-5 hours max. Like I said in your other post, I am glad I pulled mine to find out the cam was toast too.

FYI my noise was an inconstant tick, almost like a broken inner spring or roller rocker spitting needles.

 

Changing just the lifter is not a bad idea you just have to make sure you get all coolant out of the bolt holes, ect. The replacement lifter for our cars now is the stock LS7 lifter so if you go to any dealership that's what you will get. If it was me I would change the whole side while I had the head off. You can get a set of 16 LS7 lifters at the dealership for $139. I work at a parts department at a chevy dealership, do NOT buy them individually they are alot higher. The LS7 lifter pack is part number 12499225 again do not buy the individually as they are alot higher than the pack.

Also get new updated lifter trays they are like $7-$12 a piece. part number 12595365

 

thats what mine is! it comes and goes every 5 -10 seconds or so, sometimes longer between ticks. thanks for that last bit of info. looks like ill be yanking the heads in the next coming days.

 

BTW I had LS7 lifters. Changed them out for drop in morels with new lifter trays. Before anyone asks, they were free so that is why I didn't do link bars.

 

It was consistent with RPM. Even though it was inconsistent, the ticking gained proportionate inconsistency with RPM? LOL, doesn't make sense to me either haha.

 

yea that sounds just like what i have going on.

 

Sounds exactly like an issue I have. Wildly inconsistent, yet worse with RPM.

Of course....I checked my oil filter and found some metal powder, so I freaked out, yanked the motor, checked all the bearings/lifters/pushrods/everyfrickinthing....

The only thing I found wrong was a less than optimal top ring tension on the number 7 cylinder. I bought new lifters to be safe even though I couldn't see anything wrong with them after removal.

Replaced that number seven ring pack, all the bearings, and gaskets, had the heads cleaned/valve job/etc....but haven't gotten it back in the car yet to see if its fixed.

:-(

 

so i yanked the drivers side head to check my lifters as i was sure thats the side the noise was coming from. I visually inspected the lifters and couldnt see anything wrong, all rollers looked good so i took some advice from stuff i read on here and took a pushrod and pressed down on the lifters. all checked out as i couldnt budge them at all except the 6th one back i could press ever so slightly down. i pulled it out and was able to compress it with just my finger pressure. im assuming, as it is the only lifter that was inconsistent with the rest, that would be my problem. now, I ONLY have the drivers side head off, and this motor wont be in the car for more then 6 months from now with limited driving. so that being said can i just replace the one lifter, or should i atleast do the entire drivers side or should i just suck it up and do all 16. lifters are cheap so im not worried about having to buy all of them im just not looking forward to having to pull the other head as the drivers side was already a PITA. thanks for any help guys!

 

I would at least change all on the the side I had off if it was me

 

How are these working out for you? They seem like a solid upgrade to the ls7 lifters but it'd be nice to hear from someone who actually uses them.

 

So far they are great. only have a few hundred miles since the swap. I do not hear any more noise. although the noise I do hear seems to be more consistent and healthier. That may be because last I heard was lifters taking a crap lol.

 

That's good to hear, I was looking at these to drop in with some upgraded trays, even though I'm not doing to heads, just for piece of mind.

 

I would definitely upgrade trays while I was there. I am doing the same thing on my car now, changing Oil Pump, Lifters, Trays

 

10-4. is it possible for the lifters to leak btw? that may be why the tap was inconsistent, it would pump up and stay quiet for a a bit then leak and start tapping. then repeat and so on.

 

Yes, My car at prolonged hot idle would get louder until I hit 3k rpm or a wot blast and everything would quiet down. By the time I got to them, they had already damaged the cam though.