Priming a Hydraulic lifter...Help

Been a while since I did it last....anyone have a clue on priming lifters. I am taking them out pair by pair on my 440. I have it on a drill press and cleaning them out individually but doing it my fathers way I load it up with oil and then need brute force to have the piston cap sink low enough to insert the lock ring....The way I remember doing it is putting in some oil, pressing it down, insert the lock ring and then pump the piston up and down until its rock solid...

How do you prime your lifters?

They are Isky Lifters it makes a difference..

Most cam companies don't recommend priming lifters any more. Really it is a waste of time if you prime your engine oiling system after assembly. That way they load to the proper capacity.

If your priming lifters for engine assy, so they won't be dry,.....I place them in a can , one at a time,....... with the same oil I'm gonna use in the engine,......use an old pushrod and "stroke" the lifter till it pumps up as full as possible,I leave them standing upright submerged in the oil until I'm ready to button up the motor, repump them one more time,then install,........if you have adjustable rocker arms w/hyd. lifters and your going to set the lash (cold) the lifters will need to be pumped up, in a fresh eng build, you'll need to preoil the engine, be sure to rotate the crank to supply oil to the proper passages

I finished em on the drill press....still a ticking noise....time to dig deeper on the block....

Engine has about 6500 miles on it, been ticking the last 200 as it sounded like a gasket leak, Apparently....I was mistaken

It is very easy to trace lifter noise. Very easy (but can be messy). Try to first determine which side, now with the engine running remove that valve cover and with a hammer handle put pressure on the push rod end of the rocker arm. When you hit the noisy one the noise will diminish or stop. A lot of the times it don't come back after purging the lifter in this way. On a relatively fresh engine you shouldn't even have to take any more than the rockers and push rods off to change out a lifter. Are you even sure that it is a lifter tick and not a manifold/header leak??? there is also a lot of times a certain amount of rocker noise with OEM stamped rockers do to their loose fit on the shaft. Won't hurt a thing. Doesn't sound any worse than solid lifters.

Sometimes a fuel pump will make a noise simular to a lifter noise.