Possible bad lifter

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Clelan

Inferno Red Duster
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Can a lifter go bad without wrecking the cam? My engine is a 75 360 with stock crank and pistons and an unknown cam.
I have a tick from 2000 to 2500 rpm, maybe higher but the exhaust drowns it out so I am not sure. It only happens when up to180° operating temperature.
Last sunday I popped the valve covers to check the pushrod and rocker arms hoping I could find the problem. Never found any bad components but 1 rocker on each side seemed to have no preload. They were quite loose compared to the others.
Would these lifters be wasted?

Cley
 
Runs great! No backfiring. Never checked valve springs. Nothing obvious except those 2 loose rocker arm.

Cley
 
I had lifters collapse. Cam was not damaged. Actually the guts came undone! Luckily the components didn't fall down in the motor. Replaced lifters and all was good.
 
Lifter clatter but with car still ran fine! It was pretty pronounced in the valve cover area. Went to check under covers and found 2 loose pushrods on passenger side. I 1st panicked and thought wiped cam. But then started my thinking process and realized that lifters were the real issue. So just installed a new set and all was good!
 
If the lifters are bad to the point that the cam is damaged, they won’t be spinning. If the cam and lifter surface is still good, the lifters should be rotating with the engine is running. So if the lifters are still spinning when the engine is running then the cam is probably still ok.
 
Well i had a mopar performance cam and lifter kit in the 360. Bought a new set of the same brand. Lasted up until recently went with another mopar cam 292/508 to be precise. This cam is awesome! Much snappier than the previous cam (280/474 mopar cam.)
 
Thanks guys, I'm hopeful the cam is ok because it runs beautifully other than the tick that gets noticeably louder as the engine warms up. The oil pressure is still minimum 50 psi when the noise happens.

Cley
 
Thanks guys, I'm hopeful the cam is ok because it runs beautifully other than the tick that gets noticeably louder as the engine warms up. The oil pressure is still minimum 50 psi when the noise happens.

Cley

That sounds like the lifter is collapsing more than anything else
 
OK, just checking on the ZDDP content. You have that covered.

If 20W50 is having trouble keeping some lifters pumped up, then those lifters are in a bad way! The check valves may be jammed open with debris, or the little springs busted.

Check your rockers for any cracks.
 
How does this cam look? No weird wear that I can see. I think I'm going to put new lifters in and run it. Opinions?

Cley
20200606_101545.jpg
20200606_101729.jpg
 
It looks ok. But u will know when u pull the lifters. Then do a close inspection. U will need to break the new lifters in the same as if u changed the cam. Check ur pushrods and rockers for wear. Kim
 
I just pulled the lifters and they all look good. Rockers and pushrod look good too. I have new lifters and a bottle of assembly lube. I'm going to put it back together and break it in like a new cam. Wish me luck!

Cley
 
The only one that I paused at was the 2nd from the bottom in the group of 4 in the bottom pix. The wear pattern is grey all across instead of shiney in one area.

Check each lobe peak and look for any sort of a slight break in the smoothness of the lobe. The pix below shows the type of thing to looks for; this lobe is at the end of its life. When things wear further, the little flat area shown by the arrow will extend across the lobe.
IMG_20191011_112525505.jpg
 
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Well I got the last couple things together and broke in the lifters to the cam. Things went well and I'm confident I I fixed the problem. No noise during break in. Cold rainy and shitty here so I wont go for a test drive unless it smartens up this evening. I cant believe the weekend is almost over again!

Cley
 
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