MarkD

With all of the lifter talk these days I thought I'd post a couple of detail pics of the part in question.

This is an old, failed lifter. The seal is toast and it has marks on one end from "removal process" Seals can be bad and not come out in pieces as this one did.
It is also worth noting that a "collapsed lifter" would be caused by the internal spring failing.

The grids squares are 1"

boulderbobo

Good info here.

Thanks Mark!

jdistefa

God is indeed in the little things. Then again, so is Andreas.

cabrio993

Thanks for that picture MArk.

Interesting to see a spring in there, I always thought that the fact that they were hydraulic meant that fluid inside the lifter was the one keeping the pressure agains the valve.

I see now that they are in fact, some sort of a miniature shock absorber...

Flying Finn

The latest thing in Club Racing is to replace these with remote reservoir Moton Clubsport lifters...

MarkD

I suspect the spring is there to keep the internal oil cavity opened up. Oil pressure does most of the work.
Similar to the chain tensioners on these engines. There is a spring but the oil pressure actually does the tensioning.


wish I could photoshop...

Paul M

Thank you for an informative and uplifting post.

cabrio993

Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

AOW162435

Where have you been hiding?


Andreas

jdistefa

In your backyard.

AOW162435

Hmm. That explains why the motion lights have come on quite a bit recently. I'll need to review the footage from the cameras tonight.....


Andreas

helmet155

From a design standpoint, the spring is in there as Mark says to keep the cavity open. The oil pressure can find the void easily due to the path of least resistance into the lifter itself.

One other neat point, that is if the lifter is collapsed by design or by failure (as in no spring by design or as we see sometimes - failed internal spring) the lifter could get side loaded and stuck closed, causing some racket and warranty expense...thus the spring for a viagra effect.

mike993c2s

Mark, I've replaced these lifters in the past, but never took the time to take them apart. BTW, where did the "cadaver" come from?

MarkD

a recent top end job we did
Most all of these had deterioated seals

jhummel68

Is there a way to know when to replace the seals, besides noisy lifters? Is this something we should be doing as preventative maintenance on 15 year old cars?