Technical FE 390 found this in the lifter gallery...

Hello

Changing the intake manifold gasket on a 1964 Ford FE 390, there was a retaining clip and a cap from a lifter in the valley. Question: Can I push it down reinsert it with needle nose pliers? Is there supposed to be a spring under that cap in the lifter body? Thanks for your advice...Update I took out the rest of the lifter found these two pieces

 

I might remove that lifter and look at why it happened if possible. The spring might be lower, perhaps look up a ctaway diagram and see. If all's well then maybe you could. I'm not certain on Ford stuff.

 

I would pull the lifter and look for abnormal lifter wear or a flat cam lobe. There should not be enough clearance for that to come apart...

 

Was that pushrod out of position or did the lifter seat come out when you pulled the pushrod? I'd take that lifter out of the bore,put the seat back in it, and use a vise and short bolt (line the jaws with cardboard or other soft stuff to protect the lifter bottom) to compress the lifter and bleed out the oil slowly. Then put the clip in place and the lifter back in its bore. The spring is under the part that's still in the lifter in your pic...

Terry

 

Generic cross section. Question is why did the snap ring fail, how long has it been that way, could have been faulty since put together, has it been laying there for some while or is it only a recent failure? I'm surprised that the lifter has stayed together and hasn't dislodged causing more damage.
What caused you to reseal the remove the intank to reseal it?
If it was my engine I'd consider adding some tension back into the spring with a view to it seating correctly in the recess ensuring that the socket seats correctlty in the body. Listen to others however with more knowledge and experience before committing to anything at short notice.

 

Excellent post,mgtstumpy! If in any doubt as to the condition of this lifter, replace it with a new one. A new lifter will run just fine on a used cam.

Terry

 

Thanks H.A.M.B. quick response team! I wonder if it came apart when I pulled the pushrod out, got caught on the retaining wire some how. See extra pics, looking at the ford Service Manual it does say "typical" maybe I only had one spring in there to begin with.

 

Answer to Stumpy:

Pulled the intake due to white smoke out of the left tail pipe at throttle. Big cloud. the bolts, hard to see from my pic, but the front intake bolt driver's side one is covered in rust (upper left in photo) the rest are shiny and black or silver. The installer used a light copper spray and the cork! end seals. With some blue goo. Didn't look all that meticulous of an install, a few bolts were missing lock washers... some intake bolts popped loose none felt all that tight I was expecting 25 lb-ft for each one, I was going to just retorque and see what happened, then I thought I'd go through the whole drill. So : it looks like the driver's front corner lifted or never sealed right, thus the leak. Car ran great except for that, pulled all the plugs, no real rusty white ones...

 

I don't think the bolts should be silver, what are head markings. Iam thinking hardware store. Is The rusty one in a water jacket? Could you pull another lifter apart to see if any thing is missing.

 

The intake is an Edelbrock performer. I'm getting a FE bolt kit from Summit. And I'm using sealer on the water jacket bolts. These bolts look like Ford and hardware store combined, the intake is thicker in spots than stock .
That'll solve the problem.
And I ordered a new lifter , I'll coat it with assembly lube. Why take a chance?

 

What probably happened was the c clip jumped out of the lifter. I’ve seen it before. Then when you removed the rocker arms, the other part came out. The lifter will work just fine without the cir clip, as long as the rockers are adjusted properly. They are only necessary while installing the lifter/ rocker arms.






Bones

 

They will pop out if you run out of oil, or otherwise get lash in the system. The clip really only functions to hold the lister together in assembly and handling. It pops out when there is excessive lash.

Keep looking.