Hydraulic Lifters Explained

[@gregmaggielipscomb9246]

Very, very good presentation , thank you!

[@mbsoldschool]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Matt-om5dv]

Good presentation.

[@sar9907]

Very simple and straight forward on explaining hydraulic lifters. God bless sir. My car developed a tick sound. I opened the valve cover driver side and noticed cylinder #1 intake rocker loose. I tightened the bolt till zero lache. Started the car. ticking sound quit for 30min then came back. Wonder if I need to takeoff lower intake for more inspection. Could it be a failed lifter?

[@mbsoldschool]

well you need to check a few things. Firstly you adjusted to zero lash, but did you tighten a further 3/4 turn. If you did & rattle came back, then check the bolt/nut has not unwound itself from where you set it. If all is OK with the first two, then you may have a blockage of oil flow into the lifter which probably may show up as lack of oil in the rocker fulcrum. If there is plenty of oil then it may be the lifter itself. A bottler of lifter free from wynn's or similar may remove any junk blocking the lifters.

[@MattCorrie-n9f]

thanks - this is great. on a hydraulic roller lifter (as in a pushrod chev V8 OEM application), i assume the depth or preload is the same? i have measured the adjuster nut travel, and it differed from your numbers. With a .375" rocker stud, 1 full turn was .040". in my application, i was doing the 1/2 turn preload and the rocker arms kept backing off. i measured .0200" plunger travel and i am now assuming that .020" preload was the problem. thanks again - enjoyed your lecture!

[@tonymontana897]

Excellent video. I'm no engine builder by any stretch, but I'd like to have a go at building a Cleveland V8 in the near future. I understand the need to match parts correctly and have the correct tolerances etc. You seem like a Holden Guru, but have you played with Clevo's much in your time ? I'd love to see you in action around one if at all possible. Thanks for the video.

[@mbsoldschool]

Oh yeah, done a lot of Clevo's & windsors in my time as well, from std to hot rebuilds. Unfortunately I don't know someone who has a clevo car so can't do any vids on it.

[@biryaniofbodyhair]

Very interesting thankyou. I noticed today that one lobe on my camshaft was as good as dry after turning over by hand whilst doing another job, not sure whats wrong but also realised i don't actually know how hydraulic lifters work! Was on bikes for most of my life so was used to adjusting valves, still dont know whats wrong but have a better idea how they work now at least!

[@bkay5273]

Great explanation. What about non adjustable lifters like in a 7.4 (454) GM engine? Roller lifters and the rocker bolts are torqued down. The manual says if you shave the head or put new valve seats in, you may want to switch to a kit with adjustable. Yet with this clearance within the lifter, would or could this be enough where new valve replacement is okay with sticking to the torqued rockers?

[@mbsoldschool]

I am not familiar with this engine but it sounds the same as our 202 Holden engine, Ford cleveland & the chrysler hemi 6 set-ups & maybe a few more. They all have bolt down rocker pivots that are not adjustable, well not easily anyway. I have a few vids on my channel on the 202 engine lifter adjustment & rocker geometry that may be of use to get an understanding of how these work. In a nutshell, if you shave the head .020" you need .020" shorter pushrods to maintain the same lifter compression or you don't bother & allow the pushrod to go that little bit deeper into the lifter, it will still work. The important factor is how much movement tolerence is built into the lifter plunger. Our 202 has a range of up to 4mm before the lifter locks up and becomes a solid tappet, so a safety measurement would be 3.5mm max. Check out what I already have up and look out for a couple more coming up in the next 3-4 weeks.

[@dreambig1352]

Do you need to prime hydraluic lifters before installing them? (Working on 1989 mazda b2200 mini truck)

[@mbsoldschool]

You don't have to but you can prime them. Put some oil in a container deep enough to submerge the lifter. Put lifter in and using a pushrod or something blunt, push the lifter in & slowly release it. Repeat until lifter is close to solid. Then install into engine.

[@gairnmclennan5876]

Excellent thanks for this video 😊

[@milesgerschefske6231]

weird question, i've seen a few vids of guys converting a hydraulic lifter to a solid lifter for sake of getting valve train measurements. i have an extra set of unused hydraulic lifters and accidently ordered the wrong cam if i convert my lifters by turning the guts upside down and eliminating the spring, will it still oil the pushrods and rockers? would it be usable i can get a set of polly locks to set the adjustment, if not short-term till the correct lifters or cam might arrive and time is available. coming from a background in diesel i'm familiar with setting and maintaining solid lifter cams. or is there significant more to a solid lifter than just an oil pathway.

[@mbsoldschool]

It won't work. The only way to do it is to remove the spring and fit washers on that little ledge in the main body until the plunger has no downward movement. Getting the correct washer will be your next challenge, I have never seen them. When I convert hyd to solid for rocker geometry checks, I just add washers under the spring & allow about .050" plunger movement. You would need to add more washers to make the downward movement to zero. This way you will still get oil feed to the pushrods but adding all these washers in there would only be very temporary as I feel that the spring may break apart because you will never get it to zero movement, so the spring will be subject to shock load and eventually break & then you will get a ticking noise due to excess clearance & of course a ground up spring will put metal powder through your engine. Long story short, I would not try it.

[@milesgerschefske6231]

@mbsoldschool thank you for your information, kinda where I was heading with my research too. Oh well I guess there's always next year lol

[@davidparker7777]

Can you explain hydraulic lifters without the spring? I have them in my 83 cougar 5.0 They start out pushed down. It's like a spring on the opposite side.

[@mbsoldschool]

There is a spring there as per my video. When you turn the engine off, over the next few minutes the lifters that are in contact with the lobe area of the camshaft will bleed down. The valve spring is much stronger than the internal spring of the lifter. Over the next few revolutions of the engine while starting, the lifters will bleed up with oil pressure taking up the clearance created by the bleed down. The ticking noise you hear for a second or two on start up is this process.

[@walidhiphop]

I have a strange problem... Chevrolet optra 2008... I have a lifter tick only when engine is warmed up....when cold everything is well quiet..... what's the problem please !!

[@mbsoldschool]

To start with, I am not at all familiar with your engine, so have no idea whether you can adjust the lifters or not, but in theory hydraulic lifters all work the same. Oil pressure + the internal spring is what keeps the adjustment at zero lash. So make sure your oil is changed regularly & you use the correct oil for your climate conditions. For a lifter to rattle it is obviously not pumping up correctly. Causes can be as said bad oil or incorrect grade (to thin), check valve in base not sealing off but is OK when oil is thick (cold engine), adjustment (if adjustable) is borderline loose. You could try a oil additive called 'lifter free" or something like that, run it for 15-20 min & then change the oil & filter. If the problem is still there, then narrow it down to which lifter it is or just replace them all.

[@mr.k6136]

Can someone tell me what the advantage is with a hydraulic lifter compared to a solid lifter

[@mbsoldschool]

Set the tappet clearance once for the life of the engine or cyl head. Thay are quieter as well.

[@chubbybrothers]

I have a weird problem. I think I have a failed Lifter, but not in the usual way. Is it possible they can get seized and hold the valve open? As I had a dead cylinder in my 6L Chevrolet engine. On top dead center, compression stroke.There is no clearance between the Rocker and The valve In essence, the intake valve was never closing It's almost like the push rod. It's too long, so anyways, loosened off the bolt that holds the rocker assembly just until there was some clearance and lo and behold, it runs fine, And I have compression again. But I cannot leave the rocker bolt loose. The only thing I can think of is that the somehow lifter is seized and isn't collapsing. Does that make any sense to anybody here ?

[@mbsoldschool]

possibly a failed lifter. Just check that the valve stem height is the same as another cylinder on the comp stroke. I have encountered destroyed valve seats which cause the valve to stick up higher which in turn pushes the pushrod deeper into the lifter until it locks. Another check is tighten the bolt after you get zero lash & see how far it pushes the rod into the lifter. 3mm max to be safe. But it may actually open the valve when doing that because the lifter will be full of oil. In saying that though the valve will slowly close indicating that the lifter is bleeding down. If it does not bleed down then you have a seized lifter.