PAPA_E

Title pretty much sums it up. I have a lifter in piston three first or basically third lifter back on driver side. It rides the cam and can easily finger push back down after it becomes snug at the top of cam lobe. Once down and still riding on cam it spins freely. However vice grip pulling it wont get the damn thing to come up.

Since I feel it will easily drop down how can I avoid dropping it in the pan. My buddy recommended feeding a towl in the hole and trying my luck with some magnets.

I figured im not the first and I swear if i end up dropping the pan Im taking gasoline and matches to this car.

JakeFusion

iTrader: (7)

Heads are off I assume? And short block still in car?

Grab some magnets and try that. If it still won't come out, slide a piece of 3/8" rod or a wooden dowel in the oil galley from the front of the motor and place under it (assuming you can get it up enough). And then you can work a little more freely on it.

PAPA_E

It moves up and down almost freely riding the cam. However when I try to pull it out it seems stuck. I assumed it's been damaged as I have a noise thus opening it up.

Heads are off

Shortblock in car

I fear​​​​​​ forcing it out the top by pulling will damage the lifter guide passage. But I really don't want to drop it in the pan.

SiskMan

Gonna sound odd, but can you pull the lifter to its highest position, then rotate the cam to its base circle, then place something in the gap to push the lifter out when the cam lobe comes back around? Maybe a wooden dowel rod?

If the lifter bore gets scratched or something, I wouldn't think it to be the end of the world. Likely it will be a scrape that is quite small, leaving the the rest of the unscraped bore to support the new lifter. And if the lifter is worn into the block leaving a large ridge, you might have bigger problems.

80/TA/LT1

iTrader: (2)

I had this problem years ago on a 350 Chevy, I bought a lifter removal tool. It's basically a mini slide hammer, you pull the guts from the lifter and 2 claws grab the inside lip. It worked great

Jays_SSZ28

iTrader: (2)

Vice grips pulling won't get it out you say?
Probably trashed pretty bad.
Tried looking down the cam tunnel to see?
I see two options:
1. screw up the lifter bore to find you have to tear the engine down anyway.
2. tear the engine down anyway.

(assuming this is some sort of LS engine with roller lifters and not a gen 1 sbc with a flat tappet that you'd usually rip out through the top and be done with it.)

kinglt-1

iTrader: (26)

Put a dowel rod in thru that side to hold the lifter, pull the cam, get a strong extension magnet on the lifter through the valley, and remove the dowel rod. Should be able to catch the lifter with the magnet and bring it up through the valley.

PAPA_E

Basically what I ended up doing

SiskMan

Good idea!

Jays_SSZ28

iTrader: (2)

I like to do things the hard way, never listen to me lol.
Are the needle bearings gone? What brand lifter is that?

PAPA_E

Ls6 lifter it kinda crapped out i think due the cam shedding a little metal I think. Lobe was 1 ahead that lost metal.

Was a new ls6 cam that went in....... not something cheap.

SiskMan

Thats an odd looking wear spot. It does indeed look like the cam just lost a bit of metal. Bad casting i guess?

pdxmotorhead

Thats very similar to the fail mode when a cam does not break in right, But you can see the roller mark isn't right on top of it, looks like the surface hardening spalled off.

PAPA_E

That's what i was thinking. And it going into thr next lifter made sense to me.

33willys

iTrader: (1)

Papa, Was the lifter making a noise or is this a junkyard pulldown that you haven't run yet?

PAPA_E

It made a little intermittent noise that started to get worse. Then I keep getting a flashing engine light and the tick was getting kinda loud. Nothing crazy but it started getting much worse then when it first started

RockinWs6

The body of the lifter came in contact with cam and that mark is the result.

PAPA_E

Im going to have do disagree, the lifter that rode the lobe with damage was in perfect shape, or looked fine. The lifter pictured is 1 lobe back. It looks bad, but the lobe it rode had minimal marks. I honestly think the cam as already mentioned shed some metal for whatever reason.


That metal ended up in the next inline lifter which caused the roller to fail or atleast start to fail.

Crf450r420

iTrader: (1)

My guess would be something got between the lifter and cam to cause this, but to be sure you will have to look in the oil pan to see if you find something.