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Alright guys, I've been chasing what I thought might be a possible lifter tick. I had a tick that could be heard once the motor started to get up to temp, and would change with the RPM. shortly after I noticed it, I had a bit of a loss in power. Drained the oil, and opened up the filter and didn't see anything. Finally got the heads off and noticed 3 of the lifters were like the 2 above. I also noticed some exhaust marks from the headers (recently replaced the gaskets because I thought that might be the issue first). Other than this the lifters look fine and don't leak down when I pressed with my hands. Does this look like it might be causing my issue? Is there anything else I should check?
Look down into the lifter bores & check the cam lobes, just to make sure they are not galled. That type of scarring would tend to produce a squeal rather than a tick.
Lifters should push down when pressed w/ hands because only the orifice is keeping oil in the lifter. Orifice isn't under pressure. So, am not sure why it wouldn't push down When you pressed by hand. Lifter tick can be a PITA. Could be a dirty lifter that gets stuck open or partially open. We usually test this by spraying carb cleaner down the pushrod & into the lifter to see if it frees it up.
If cam lobes look OK, I'd just replace all of the lifters & move on.
So here is the best pic I could get of the cam. Is The edge supposed to look like that? Might that be part of the problem?
It's just varnish. The shiny part is where the roller contacts the cam. The dirty or brownish area is just built up because there's no contact in that area. Cam looks good in pics. You'll want to rotate the engine & check the cam all the way around 1 cam rotation. Put a socket on the crank bolt & turn the engine say 15* @ a time & then look in the lifter holes to check that surface of the cam. I think the it's gonna look good all the way around.
I had a similar issue with my Morel lifters and Crane cam several years ago. I sent both the cam and the lifters for analysis and was told the cam had not be properly polished by the manufacturer. I replaced the cam and had the lifters rebuilt by Morel. If I had not taken the car apart, I would not have known as there were no obvious problems. Not sure if yours is the same problem.
It's kinda hard to tell with it in the car, but I'm just gonna replace it anyways. Gives me an excuse to get a new cam. Now it's just a decision on which one lol. Thinking about either an MS3 or torquer V2.
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Lifter scarring 
