Lifters won't pump up - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

shaynet · 06-12-2003, 04:40

Installed new hydraulic lifters with cam but 2 are clacking badly. Pulled rocker cover off and two rockers can be pushed down 1/4 inch due to lifter compressing.

I'm told that these 2 lifters have not "pumped up" (like the other 14 did) and the only way to fix it is to pull em out and prime them manually.

Any other suggestions before I have to remove the inlet manifold

brenx · 06-13-2003, 05:04

Your doing the right thing by replacing the suspect two. Just make sure you check the cam lobe by eye for damage.

Don't regraph the dizzy yet. Just back the timing off to suit. 35 deg could be useful later in life. I'd stick to running with no vacuum advance especially with 35 deg available. If all else fails? A regraph is inevitable.

Just make sure its advancing nicely (smooth). As clevo's tend to chew out dizzy bushings.

Let us know how those 2 new lifters go.

Brenden

shaynet · 06-13-2003, 07:10

Brenx,
I knew I had big problems when I couldn't pull the lifters out. Just got the cam out and its F#$%&d. Managed to drop one of the 3 lifters that wouldn't lift out down into my other hand which I had thru the front cam bearing and its not a pretty sight.

Oil looks clean but there must be metal right thru the motor. Looks like a full rebuild!
I might go with solids next time because its obvious I don't know what I'm doing with hydraulics (although this didn't happen to me last time I changed the cam and I have done everything exactly the same)

Looks like the ESP will be off the road for a while so I can save the pennies to do her up.

xacoupe · 06-13-2003, 17:57

damn, that's no good ... a full teardown at least to make sure that nothing else is knackered from the bits of metal is a good idea. I have mostly built solid motors but the few hydraulics I built I just pumped up the lifters by turning it over for about 10 seconds with no plugs in then connecting it all up and firing it up.
Given the size of your cam I think you will benefit from solids even if they are a bit more work in the long term.

brenx · 06-13-2003, 18:09

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Hopefully the bottomend survived.

Brenden

ebxr8240 · 06-15-2003, 01:48

How much lift is in cam. With big cams we used to run them in first with just the outer valve spring then put the inners in when warmed and cooled after 20 min running at 2000rpm..
Have you thought of a roller conversion ??? $$
Hopefully no coil bind ??

brenx · 06-15-2003, 18:32

Roller conversion on a Cleveland isn't worth the $$$$.

I priced it up for my 351. $900 just for springs! Then titanium retainers/cam shaft etc. End result was well over $3000 just to set up for the roller cam.

It was cheaper to go solid and it came back with change. Solids the best option for anyone who doesn't want to spent $6000+ on the bottomend.

An average person just can't afford that.

Clevo's aren't like windsors. Least late model windsors had a roller setup factory. Which makes a Windsor roller setup relatively cheap.

Brenden