I'm putting together a roller cam motor out of my '86 318 and some parts (heads and lifters) from a mid 90's magnum motor I saved. the '86's roller lifters don't have provisions for oiling the pushrods, so I'm going to use the magnum roller lifters I have.

they're in good shape, but when I took them apart to clean, I found something odd. none of them had any sort of spring to hold the plunger against the retaining clip. AFAIK the engine they came from was never apart before I got it (spun rod bearing).

Is this normal for mag lifters? should I go to a hardware store and maybe try find some springs to put in there, just to keep tension on the pushrods? there's only about .060" plunger travel on these lifters....I'd prefer not to have noisy lifters on startup.

second, since I didn't pay too close of attention before I took the old lifters out of the non mag 318, the oil hole on the side of the lifter that feeds the plunger, should that be face up or face down in the bore, or doesn't it matter?


thanks in advance for any help.

I never have cold start up noise in my magum motors so I wouldn't worry about the spring.

I pulled a couple lifters from a couple motors I have here one 5.2 and one 5.9 and on both of them the oil hole is towards the oil passage in the block that every one tubes for rollers.

thanks dave, that's what I presumed, and how I installed them....


I don't suppose you could pull one of your lifters apart
and see if it's like mine? I was a little concerned, because the FSM for my '86 M body and the '97 BR (ram truck) FSM look to use the exact same exploded drawing of the roller lifters....

my '86's are assembled just like the drawing, with springs in them.

I've taken apart a couple lifters. There is no spring for the plunger as far as I remember. It does have resistance against it though.

I am second-guessing myself now. Maybe there was a spring...

I've only disassembled 2 sets and both had springs in them. I have a brand new set of MP lifters on the bench with the spring and I'm certain you'd need some type spring to keep the pushrod cup against the clip.The oil hole faces the intake manifold.

patrick,

my pre mag 1990 roller lifters do not have the spring,they are oil though lifters with hollow pr

the other pre mag lifters I had did have the spring in them,it went in first and the check valve thing poked down into the spring

the 90 lifters had some kind of check valve on the bottom with a small spring inside it with a flat piece that the spring held closed

I remember blowing air through it,and it worked like a one way check valve,now thinking about it,I only blew air through 1 or 2 of them,maybe thats why mine will bleed down now and then and tap till the oil gets it pumped up,I might have weakend the spring for the check valve

I am thinking after its pump up the check valve holds the cup up against the retainer

hope that helps,I have a bunch of used flat lifters to rob the spring out of if you want them

thanks...2 people saying their magnum rollers don't have the spring is good enough for me. rockers go on in a few, then the intake and valve covers. thanks!

motors in, still have to get the accessory drive together, had to space everything out 1/4" so the alternator would clear the magnum heads. hopefully it'll be running with the Y-pipe re-built by the end of the weekend.

Isn't an '86 318 a roller motor too ?

yup, but the roller lifters from the '86 have a solid pushrod cup and no provisions for pushrod oiling, which I need for the magnum heads. I actually just listed the '86's roller lifters in the small block classifieds.

Somewhere I have read about a design problem with the original middle 1980s Chrysler SB roller lifters.

I also seem to remember that this design flaw was corrected in the 1994 model year, or thereabouts.

I also seem to remember that someone in a Moparts post said that late model Magnum roller lifters used on IMCA Magnum V6s had been run on the dyno up to 6500+ rpms

Last year the design of the roller lifters for the aluminum Viper V10s was made lighter.
Chrysler mentioned this in their official press release.
This left me wondering if the new Viper V10 roller lifters would 'drop in' the Magnum V8s ...

I think in his technical write up in Hot Rod mag David Vizard said the 5.7 Hemi roller lifters were tested to at least 6200 rpm.
I wonder if 5.7 Hemi roller lifters will drop in Magnum V8s, and if they are lighter,
and maybe if the Viper V10 just started using 5.7 Hemi roller lifters ?