Good day gents.... I just installed a
Hughes roller cam into my 360 and one of the lifters is failing to pump up. The lifters that I'm talking about are these
Hughes Lifters. I have gave Hughes a call and told them the problem.
The response was "There might be a spec of debris inside the lifter that will not allow it to pump up. Lifters are notorious for collecting debris on initial fire up engine that has been disassembled".
I realize anything can happen but all the lifters are pumping up except one. With the problems of debris and so forth in engine building I try to my upmost power to keep everything clean.
So... I removed the intake and head. I have Eddy heads and pulling these long *** lifters out without removing the head is impossible. Pulled the lifters out (two lifters connected with link bar)and cleaned them with brake cleaner and compressed air. The "good" lifter will allow air to blow through the oil hole that stays down inside the lifter bore but the "bad" lifter will not. These are oil through lifters so blowing air through the plunger into the lifter body. I would assume like most parts of a engine that if one part is doing (a) then the other part should do (a) as well. Took the lifter completely apart and did not see a spec of anything in the lifter. To be frank there is not alot to these lifters internally. Cleaned everything .... rebuilt the lifter and still no air blowing through the oil hole like it does in the good lifter.
This is very strange. Unless the lifter body is not machined correctly I don't have a clue what the problem could be.
Now one thing I have not gotten around to doing is submerging the lifter in oil and pumping it up manually. But upon my beliefs at this point if the good lifter has air blowing through the oil hole and the bad lifter doesn't then I will be wasting my time. I will however submerge/pump up the lifter just for the hell of it. If the lifter pumps up being submerged in oil then who is to say that it will pump up again inside the engine after it has bleed down? Think it would be OK?
Going to give Hughes a call Monday. I can imagine what they are going to tell me but trying to warranty the two lifters connected by link bar. There is only three scenarios that will most likely happen. (a) they will warranty the lifter (b) I will have to buy another lifter because I "damaged" it or used it so now it's my fault. (c) Hughes will not warranty the lifter or sell an individual lifter because they do not want to break up a whole set. This is a $400 set of lifters.
If the answer is (c) I will go past "coming loose" to totally "unglued" in about 5 secs.
The purpose of this thread is to get your opinion what could be wrong and also let everyone know how Hughes customer service handles this situation.