cheetah chrome

After reading lifter posts back to '01 I've been soaking + attempting to pump up two sets of lifters. I only need to yield 1 set out of all so this maybe an overkill....but I had them sittting around so what the hell. Anywho after two days of soaking and a half a dozen pump ups I have:

set 1) 3 hard/5 soft
set 2) 6 hard/2 soft

There hasn't been much change since soaking/pumping them in fresh oil. How much longer should I put off reassembly (I'd prefer to keep set 2 together as it was the set pulled from my cam tower) or just combine the hard ones out of the two sets?

Also,I just want to make sure that when people say a "hard" lifter they mean they can not pump it by hand (even using a T handled allen wrench you can't get the button to move). I just don't want to put a lifter in that may be siezed.

Ski

hit the little side hole with a shot of air - if it stays hard, run it.

oh, put a rag over it or a face full of oil splatter when you do this.

aribop

I thought that with the lifters soaking in oil, you should be able to press the button down a bit and it will come back up, and that lifter is good. I have run across many lifters that you cannot even move (budge) the button. Stuck as can be.

RKD in OKC

On my "bad" lifters the little button could be pushed in with my thumb and they would come back dry. The "good" lifters I could not budge with my thumb wet or dry. I had 3 bad from my set of 8. I replaced the 3 soft lifters with "good" lifters from another car.

The reason I looked at the lifters is I was hearing lifter clatter after the motor warmed up AND was getting a power plateau at around 5500 rpm at over 17psi of boost from the floating lifters. Since replacing the 3 soft lifters I have not had a problem so I assume from that experience replacing lifters in a set is okay.

Fluidplay

did a search on testing lifters and found your thread. I've had this insane ticking noise that me and several guys have determined has to be a bad lifter. I removed the cam tower, soaked the lifters in oil, blew some air (100#) in the small hole and they don't budge. Pushed the button and nothing. What is it exactly you're feeling when they're bad? Does the button compress flush against the bottom of the lifter or when you blow it up, does it project futher out. I've tested all of them and they're as solid as can be.
Apprciate any advise you can give..
Dennis

Lorax

It should be very hard to compress the button with or without oil.

Ian Carr

Good to know guys, I will make sure to test my lifters in the next week or so.

Fluidplay

Very hard at the very least, but truly next to impossible, seems to be a better description. After going through 10 lifters I finally found one that would be classified as "NO GOOD". It's very obvious when a lifter is really gone, with much effort it actually compresses almost flush with the bottom of the lifter and has a pronounced click as you release it back into position. I was really surprised...at first at thought I was chasing some lifter testing myth. One side effect is my thumb is numb from pushing on lifters all afternoon. Definitely worth it if I can eliminate that noisy lifter racket.