Well my 283 with solid lifters runs really nice. But after about 30 miles since my motor swap, a lifter on the number one cylinder still will not pump oil up into it's rocker arm! When I had the intake off I tried to pull the lifter out and couldn't, with just my fingers and lightly with a needle-nose. Tried blowing compressed air through the oiling hole on the lifter, and oil came out of the rocker arm oil hole right next to it. Any thoughts-like an oil additive before I replace the lifter??
Is the pushrod open they can clog up. Sometimes changing a lifter can wipe out the cam lobe. I would pull the lifter out and dissemble it and clean it up and try again. You cold if your careful just leave it in the engine and remove the clip and take it apart and clean it. something is clogged up.
I hate to bear possible bad news but when you can't pull a lifter out it is usually mushroomed on the bottom and bigger than the hole. Check the pushrod and make sure it is open but if the lifter is bad so is the cam. After you get the other lifters out, pull the stuck one up as high as you can then remove the cam and drive the stuck lifter out the bottom.
Perhaps it came out with the needle nose pliers. A few questions, did the engine block get new cam bearings? Is the lifter in question the correct lifter? On the lifter compare it to another lifter that oils properly, make sure that they match. If new cam bearings be sure that the oil holes all line up. before reassembly if it were me I would get my oil pump primer and spin the pump so I could get a look at what I had going on. Then go from there. I have actually seen oil passages plugged or partially plugged in my time. Just random thoughts here.
I had the same problem with a rebuilt 283! When I prelubed the engine before firing,there was one rocker that wasn't getting oil so I started searching for the problem. I finally decided to switch the two rocker arms and then tried prelubing the engine again. This time the other rocker arm wasn't getting oil!! Turns out that the bad rocker was worn enough that the oil hole wasn't aligning with the hole in the pushrod so I put a new rocker assembly on and then all rockers were getting oil!! Now all is good!!
If it´s an older engine you might just have a clogged pushrod.I usually clean them with brake cleaner solvent and compressed air...you wouldn´t believe what kind of gunk is in there sometimes...
I made sure the push rod was clear. They are solid lifters so there's no clip. Motor doesn't miss or anything.
here is old from when I was young and 283 were everywhere had a 62 283 in 66 could not get 1 lifter out. old man down the road worked at the local chevy dealer told me and I quote get the strongest magnet you can and a can of good penetrant like pb blaster get the lifter moving keep spraying and keep moving it. it eventually come out tom
Another possibility is.. There are two oiling systems in Chevy lifters.. Edge orfice and piddle valve. The snap ring type are usually piddle valve. The solid ones are edge orfice.. Edge orfice lifters depend on the clearance between the lifter bore and the lifter to send oil up the pushrod. Tight clearance=no oil to rocker.. A common problem back in the sixties.. Been there.. Had to hone lifter bores, per Chevrolet engineering..
I seem to remember years ago I had same problem with a 283. The dist was not in factory firing order. Something to do oil slot in cam.
Yah the lifter spins freely and pulls up a real little bit. That's why I'm thinking if it came up like a half inch or so, maybe the bottom end is mushroomed. Do they make a tool to pull solid lifters out???
I have a slide hammer type puller for sticky lifters, but do not know if it will grab a solid lifter. I can take a picture of it if you need it.
go ahead and braze or mig weld a bolt to it and yank it out. then look at the concave lifter bottom and tear the engine down to replace the worn down cam lobe! Just kidding?
If the engine has some miles and/or age, it might just have some varnish on the bottom part of the lifter, causing it to stick. Spray a little carb cleaner around the lifter while spinning it. If it's varnish, the carb cleaner will dissolve it and the lifter will come out. If it still doesn't come out, a lifter removal tool may be necessary, although I've been able to grab them with vice grips and wiggle/twist them out
go to your GM dealer and pick - up a can of lubricity it was used for squeaky rockers we also used it after changing head gasket or intake gasket when prestone leaked into the pan and the lifter were noisy( 3.8 buick and 3.1,-3.4 chevy) he might not have it on the shelf but it's in his book lubricants and chemicals
Holy cow! Man did I dodge a bullet! Turns out after using a slide puller type lifter mover, the problem was easy to see. Someone had probably dropped the lifter, and then still installed it anyway. The bottom of the lifter had two hairline cracks on the sides of it, and the surface of the bottom of the lifter had a slight pitch to it! So it did not wipe the lobe because it was still getting oil. But the lifter was not spinning,and the oil holes in it were 90 degrees off from the oil journal in the block! Replaced it with a new lifter and it pumped oil up into the rocker quickly! To say I thanked the Lord immediatly would be an understatement!
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