Getting inside the top end of a motor is uncharted territory, but a friend asked for help. Back story is that a motor of unknown origin but "allegedly" only 70k miles was swapped in. All we know for sure is that in the year or so it's been under our control, it has never started (nor attempted to be started). We put it in, and it fired right up, no problem. Well, except for what we're pretty sure is a lifter tick. Took the head off, pushrods & lifters look great. I had never looked at lifters before, but if you had told me they were newly installed last month I would've believed you. No signs of wear on the sides or bottom, oil passages are clear.
The only real issue we can identify is that one particular lifter just doesn't want to go back down into the bore very easily. All 12 came out very easily and 11 went back in very easily. This one just really doesn't want to drop in nicely. We can get it in, but we really had to push it to get it home, Rotating the engine, I can see the lifter get pushed up by the cam, but it won't fall back down on it's own. We've added oil to the bore, coated the lifter, etc, no change in behavior.
Not knowing much about this side of things, is it common for a lifter to get "stuck" or at least be "sticky" in the bore? Everything I read about stuck lifters has to do with the oil passage & other internals of the lifter. I can't find any mention of this. Nor can I find any dicussions of a lifter not wanting to go back into the hole. I'm happy to put new lifters in, but unless it's a tiny fraction smaller than the current ones, it's going to have the same problem. The obvious(?) culprit is that there is a burr or something on the lifter bore, but I can't feel anything with my finger. Help?
The only real issue we can identify is that one particular lifter just doesn't want to go back down into the bore very easily. All 12 came out very easily and 11 went back in very easily. This one just really doesn't want to drop in nicely. We can get it in, but we really had to push it to get it home, Rotating the engine, I can see the lifter get pushed up by the cam, but it won't fall back down on it's own. We've added oil to the bore, coated the lifter, etc, no change in behavior.
Not knowing much about this side of things, is it common for a lifter to get "stuck" or at least be "sticky" in the bore? Everything I read about stuck lifters has to do with the oil passage & other internals of the lifter. I can't find any mention of this. Nor can I find any dicussions of a lifter not wanting to go back into the hole. I'm happy to put new lifters in, but unless it's a tiny fraction smaller than the current ones, it's going to have the same problem. The obvious(?) culprit is that there is a burr or something on the lifter bore, but I can't feel anything with my finger. Help?
