I am about to put new lifters in (LS1). Do I need to let them soak in oil over night or can I just put them in the motor dry.
This may sound silly but I want to ensure it is done corretly. This is the third time I have had the heads off and hopefully this will be the last.

 

Soak 'em...

 

Ditto...it'll help on the start up...

 

Will an hour be long enough?

 

I'd probably let them go longer than that. Most folks soak them overnight, but anything is better than nothing.

I take it you're putting it together right now? Haha...

 

I let them soak for a couple of weeks due to the fact that I had a hard time finding a place to do my head swap....

 

The instructions or information that came with your lifters should have said overnight.

 

No instructions
Yes

 

Patience is a virtue. You can still fire it up this weekend if you give 'em 8 hours or so.

 

Ah, I see...I know how you feel...

 

Yeah that's true...

Could always use the time to prep other parts for install....or maybe clean under the hood a bit while you have things out of the way.

 

cough, cough....motor mounts....cough, cough

 

Haha...I actually considered that last time I had mine apart...even already had the mounts.

But I already had so much ahead of me to put back together, I convinced myself to save them for a later date.

Probably should have went ahead and done them though...

 

you can speed this up by using an oil can with a pump.
put it right up to the hole on the lifter side and pump oil in it.
the oil will fill and come out the top, pump some in the roller and coat the outside.

 

Cleaned all the carbon off the piston heads now going to have lunch.
They have been soaking for 3 hours now.

 

There are two different schools on this, but the comp instructions to clean them thoroughly if they are new to get the preservative off, then soak them long enough to get the air out and make sure there is oil in the bearings, a few hours should be plenty.

Some say overnight, others say don't soak them at all, just submerge them to get air out and oil into the bearings. I think a little wait in an oil bath to be sure the bearings are lubed and there is oil in them is fine unless your instructions say otherwise.

 

Okay I let them all soak for about 4 hours. What will be in the drivers side are still soaking.

Now another issue arrises. Somehow the bolt hole for the rear lifter tray is stripped. I tried two different lifter tray bolts and nadda. I also tried teflon tape just to try to thicken the bolt, still nothing. The teflon tape bunched up on the top fo the bolt and did not catch.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do or maybe another bolt size I can use to get the lifter tray torqued.

The stock bolts wont even go in all the way. They stop at about the thickness of a washer and will constantly spin while trying to put them in. The bolts will come out clean and they are not stripped.

I am not sure of the actual thread size but the bolt head is a 10mil.

 

Easiest is just to tap them to the next thread size and get new bolts, **** way would be to helicoil them. They are only 109 inch pounds torque so helicoil is probably overkill. I would just tap them and then be very gentle when you tighten - put your palm over the head of the ratchet and tighten with medium force if you don't have an inch pound wrench.

 

I agree, I don't think I'd mess with helicoils...just find a tap and corresponding bolts and go with it.

Good luck.

 

Well Bayer-Z28 did the helicoil and it worked perfect. What a pain in the *** it was for him.

Thanks Rich