collapsed lifter, what causes it and is it repareable??

So i went driving today and as always no problems, but after about 40 miles cruising and some "getting away at green light as fast as possible" moments that i pushed the pedal a bit deeper the engine suddenly got a ticking noise (I did NOT revved it to high, limiter is set at 6000 and did not kicked in) But engine performed good and was running on 8 cilinders.

So i cruised to my shop and diagnosed the noise was from under the valvecover on the 2-4-6-8 bank, removed the cover and the cilinder #2 intake rocker was loose, removed the rockers and pushrods and al looked good, put everything back and adjusted #2 rocker to zero lash and ½ turn preload.

Started up and perfect, no ticking anymore so i went driving, after about 10 miles i could feel that it was running on 7 cilinders but no ticking, so i went back and removed the intake, what i found was that #2 intake lifter was easy to push to the bottom and the other lifters were rock hard.

So i'm gonna replace the lifter and test again, what could be the cause of this and what is wrong / broken in this lifter??

In a few weeks i'm going to the track and then i don't wanna have this problem, what can i do so that this does not happen again?

Thanks for your time!

Quote:

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plugged oil port ?

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could be possible, tomorrow after work i'm gonna pull the lifter for inspection, allready pulled the intake tonight and while cranking the engine i could see that the #2 lifter did stay "soft" while all the others were "hard"

hope it is just a simple fix like a plugged oil port!

is there anything else that can make a lifter stay "soft"?

Thanks!