Had a 340 motor built by a motor builder. fired the motor and had liftetrs not pumping up.great oil pressure oil on rocker arms. So he bought comp cam lifters, installed all new lifters. took care of a few on the drivers side.pass side still had problems. so he bought a box of crane cams lifters. #2intake and exhaust and #6 intake wont pump up. changed again with 3 new more lifter and still wont pump up.now he wants to install a solid lifter cam. whats going on ??

are they making the clatty noise?

are the pushrods too short?

using adjustable rockers? are you using the wrong pushrods with the hydraulic cam?

or how about more info?

Tony we changed the push rods because the other were to long.but we cant get some of them to pump up. when you push on the rocker the lifter is soft.you can push the push rod down.all the others are pumped up hard.

If the push rod is shoter than the correct one per say can it not be adjusted by the rocker?I'm starting to think there to short and it doesnt push the lifter down far enought to get oil in to it.? because looking at the lifter you sure have to push it down far to get it to see the oil hole.make sense?the motor had been o ringed before he said( engine builder) and looked like some had tapped some holes, he put the plug where they were.cold 70 psi warms up 25 at idle and rev up and it goes upto 60psi. I was hoping to go to the NATS this week end with it.any help. thanks phil

Maybe the lifter galley plugs weren't installed. They are the ones behind the cam thrust plate. I once had a machine shop tell me they weren't needed.

he said all the plugs were installed.if the push rod was short but ad the correct adjustment, could it be possible that the rod doesnt push it down enough to let the oil in the lifter though the oil hole??

well got to go to work ! sure would like a way to figure this out from a engine builder or a reason way they dont pump up !there's got to be a reason before i go to a solid lifter cam. thanks. I'll check later. or my cell is 440 413 7069 you can call me EST 12 to 12:30 my lunch. thanks phil

i had this problem years ago. never figured it out. it was fun adjust the valves (TA rockers) on that set up. half the lifters were hard as a rock and others were just mushy. I run a solid cam now

Stay with it,it has to be something simple. My suggestion would be to open up the offending lifters & have a look see. thats where the problem is so it might be a good place to start & the oil gallery plugs are DEFINITELY in place? good luck & keep us informed. Inquiring minds want to know.

If his oil galley plugs in the back weren't installed, he'd have massive amounts of oil running out between the block & trans. How long have you had it running? On a new engine sometimes it takes 15 minutes for the lifters to quiet down.

Had to replace an olds 307 block a few years ago because of a couple of lifter bores were WAAAYY big. The lifters were not getting enough oil to keep the lash out. I would hope that is not your problem, but you could go through your oil pump prime procedure and make sure of no extra spraying around of oil around any lifters.

just going through this right now with a big block. i had 6 that would not pump up, replaced them and problem solved. still have a couple more that are noisy that i will swap out as well.

It sounds like you've changed enough lifters.
Isn't there a lifter valley plug around the distributor drive gear? Seems like mine was left out by the machine shop which left oil pressure low.

did it have the cam broke in correct?

did it wipe a lobe?

were the lifters you changed still good on the cam side?

are they all spinning in the bores?

how big of a cam and spring is on it?

may just need run in some to get it fully pumped up

I cleaned and inspected the stock hydr roller lifters in mine,when I swapped to a roller cam

then installed them and they ran for 35 mins at idle before they quit making noise all the way.

BE AWARE that ChryslerCorp found novel ways to cut down on the reject rates, and had oversize lifters to fit in lifter bores that were machined oversize. There should be some kind of mark on the pan rail or possibly somewhere else telling about this.

Could be your problem. It seems that you need to carefully measure each lifter bore.

R.

well talked to another engine builder today and he said that he's switching to solid lifters cam because of the poor quality of hydalic lifters.he's had the same problems.plus cut the band on the lifter larger to make sure it was in the bore deep enough.still soft on 2 and 6.well here's comes my first solid lifter cam. it's on order as i type.just makes me mad that i had the motor all painted nice and put together. I even installed it from the bottom with the K member.try to do things right and where did it get me!! a kick in the n#%$.well got to go out and pull the front end of the car. later!!