My 4 speed Jetfire was parked in 1974. I have it started up but it makes some engine noise. It does not sound like a rod so I pulled the valve covers and 4 of the push rods are loose. May be more after i turn the engine over? These lifters were likely collapsed with those valves open for many years. My question is, can the lifters be taken apart and this fixed for temporary use? I have never tried anything with a lifter before and this is not apart yet for me to look at. I am going to rebuild this engine at a later date and don't really want to spend the money for some lifters when I am just going to later rebuild the engine and get another set with a new cam. I would like to get this running enough to be able to "lot drive" it and use it like this for a couple years. I am not going to be taking it out on the road till after a rebuild but would like it to work correct even if only for a while.

I do have some used lifters out of our automatic car that I guess I could use for no longer than they would be in there but rather fix these if it is possible. Anyone have experience with something like this?

 

I would not use the other lifters as they will probably eat your cam. I would pop the distributor and pour a qt of transmission fluid in the engine. Get a 1/2 inch drive drill and a priming tool and run the drill for a while and see if the lifters will pump up while rotating the engine a quarter turn at a time before taking the manifold off.

 

Yes, you can disassemble and clean the lifters - take a look in the Chassis Service Manual.
It's probably all you need to do.

Be sure not to mix them up, or say Good Bye to your cam.

- Eric

 

What he said.

 

before id take it apart..get a can of sea foam deep creep..spray as much as you can in them, then soak them over night in a cup of it...more than likely its varnish not rust....but if any rust come out..they need to come apart....

i did it on my 66 skylark..it has a 340..same family, same probs..and i didnt want to take them apart...it just isnt worth it to me. i serviced them all since i had them out and glad i did...when they are loose..i took a old oil can and pumped them up a few times til i was satisfied..shoved them back in and no issues...

and in 24 hrs of soaking the stuck ones where working..my car sat in a garage in florida for 25 years with out being started....it runs like a top...but boy talk about scarey when i started it...holy crap it was noisey...

ALL buick motors have oil pump problems all..get in there..they get stickey and junk settles.scores the walls and pops the motor..if theres any corrosion on the gears it needs new ones..

if it needs gears i have most of an NOS hi perf pump kit some where you can have pay ship...i cant remeber who made it..but its a famous company during the 60s..i will look and see if i can find...its specifically for a 215 and is an HP kit

 

I would put a full can of Berrymans B12 carb cleaner in the oil, run it, bring it up to temp, drain the oil and refil, and then use the qt. of trans fluid as Eric said. The B12 can also be used in the crank case, it will disolve the varnish. Its the best carb cleaner IMO and good to help clean out the sludge in an old or neglected motor if your not tearing it down soon. You might also put a strong magnet on the oil pan until you rebuild it to hold any metal that may get washed loose.

 

Remove a lifter, disassemble it, clean it thoroughly, reassemble it, oil it and put it back in the same bore. Don't interchange any parts between lifters.

The idea of removing the distributor, adding ATF and driving the oil pump should also be effective.

Be cautious with an aggressive chemical crankcase cleaning, more sludge than can be tackled at once may break loose and plug something such as an oil pick-up screen. Consider either a complete disassembly and cleaning or a gentler slower approach like repeated frequent lower viscosity oil changes. If you choose the chemical in the crankcase method do it as mentioned at idle. Don't drive it or rev it.

Keep us posted.

 

I understand that it should be the same lifter in each hole and to also not change a lifter. I for sure want to keep it this way if I can. If I can't I do not believe it is going to be ran enough to hurt it anyway. Is there a spring inside the lifter that can be bad also? I assume there is something inside them to keep the cup to the top against the clip when not pressurized? If they clean up good and I need to I can always pull the other lifters I have apart and use the guts from them. They are all original 62 lifters. I am sure it will be self explanatory when I take one apart.

I had pulled the distributor back in January and primed the oil pump for close to a half hour and turned the engine about a 1/4 turn after each 5 or so minutes. I had thought I may have lifter troubles so spent extra time spinning the pump.

I don't have the money to rebuild it at this time and want to try getting it running as good as possible for what is there.

 

Yes it will be self-explanatory. Using the retaining clip, the cup that the pushrod sits in and/or spring from another one would be fine. Using the piston from another one isn't recommended.

 

I have had good luck with Marvel Mystery oil bringing helping lifters pump back up. Similar to the transmission fluid fix.

 

These things are stuck bad! I have 4 of them apart and working on 4 others. Not sure I am going to be able to free some of them up. I am using Kroil on them and heating them up so that they are a little hot to the touch. That is the only way I got the 4 of them apart. The other 4 are stuck at the bottom so I have no room left to go down to brake them loose. I may just have to consider buying new ones. I have one soaking in carb cleaner now to try that. I looked at the bottom of the used ones I have and I don't want to use them even for temp use.

 

Try heating the carb cleaner. Be careful.

 

sea foam deep creep...i'm telling you...nothing touches it...its incredible stuff...ive been using it and other stuff my whole life..and deep creep is my go to on anything engine thats stuck...



if you need new lifters..i have some zinc additive..its good stuff..and i always add it to motors when i do a cam...havent had a cam ever go flat using it...

i hear so many people talking about new cams going flat it scares me..so i bought skids of the stuff when an estate sale closed out an auto parts store...

 

+1. Seafoam.

I don't know much about Deep Creep versus any other, but I can tell you that I've used SeaFoam to dissolve away carbon from piston crowns, like I was washing finger paint off of a table.

KROIL is good for stuck rusty parts, but for gummed internal engine parts, I'd get a few cans of SeaFoam and just soak them for a few days, then work and tap the stuck parts a bit, then soak some more.

I wouldn't heat it, as heat will drive off the volatiles that are going to do the seeping and the creeping.

- Eric

 

Looks to be a very light amount of corrosion between the plunger and the lifter body. I have all but two of them rebuilt. Two of them are still stuck but I think I will be able to get them later tonight. I am taking 320 emery cloth to the OD of the plunger and pipe cleaners to the ID of the lifter body. You can't feel anything but you can see it. There is no sludge or gummed up parts in them. I had to take two of them and get oil down past the check ball. Then I heated it up a little hotter than I wanted to. Heating the oil up under the plunger pressurized it and popped them loose. The last one shot hot oil on my arm, hurt like heck but it was such a small volume of oil it only hurt for a second. The 16 I have done work like a charm now.

May be a little silly spending this much time on lifters and not just replacing them but it is what I want to do for now.

 

Be careful with the abrasives...

That being said, it sounds like you've got it now!

- Eric

 

while I agree with all that is said I would add a caveat...if the lifter bores internally have any corrosion or have galled, they will stick regardless of what you do to them and the result of a stuck lifter is never good. im not talking the block bore the lifter sits in but rather the bore inside the lifter where the plunger and spring sits...

if you must get new lifters and hence a new face, you *can* have the cam ground to the same spec, just on a reduced base circle and then you account for lash issues. assuming you do not want to adopt a chevy style valve train, shim city....

question: is a new cam/lifter combo out of the question? unavailable?

 

The 14 that I have rebuilt so far, the plunger slides up and down very smooth. I am not worried about them sticking again. I am not sure if I will get the last two apart. I set them in a bucket of carb cleaner yesterday and will not have time to get back to them till Monday at the earliest. I hope that maybe they will be free after a couple days. If I have to I will buy a couple and put in it but I would rather not have to. Just something about knowing the engine is as built by Oldsmobile, lol. There are other cams and lifters available but I don't want to change anything till I rebuild the entire engine and that will not be soon. The original cam grind is not available and nobody knows the specs. I would have to have the original cam put on a cam doctor to find out.

I seriously doubt that this will ever be on the road till after it is rebuilt some day in the future. Just want to get it running as good as possible with what is there. At this point I am only out a couple gaskets.

 

Your having problems with this and I'm having problems with the last screw on the headlight bezel sticking. Have the 3 other T-3 bulbs in now. Different problems, but still frustrating.

 

I hate those screws. Those screws can sometimes seam to be an impossible task. I have even tried to drill one and burned the bit up. If you have two of the screws out, I have been able to bend the bezel just enough to get a light replaced. I would only do that as a last resort because it can snap off the tab from the bezel.

 

That's what I was thinking, I didn't want to snap that tab off. I used the PB blaster and got lucky. Let it sit an hour and a half. Used a pair of vice grips from the back to get a hold of it and it caught.

I think you need to post some more pics of your Jetfire. Thanks for showing it to me when I was there. I mean, how rare are these things and you own two??? You're a hoarder!!!

 

lol, I know of six 62 Jetfire cars in Indiana and all but one is the same color as our two with my 4 speed car the only with silver interior. I know of a 63 also but it is a different color also. Also know of another guy wanting a 62 Jetfire in Indianapolis. I am starting to think that Indiana is the Jetfire capitol of the world

 

If it's been setting since 74 would that hert the valve springs?
Railguy

 

I am sure it was not good on them. The lifters on those valves had bled off so that would have helped a little. Those are the lifters I am having the most problem with. They are at the bottom of the lifter ID bore and stuck. There is no room left to push them down to get them loosened up. Some day when I rebuild it I will be changing lifters and springs. I will also have to have the spark plugs cut out of the head. They are stuck.

 

This could cause plenty of spatter so use eye protection etc. but what about using bursts of compressed air alternating between the pushrod hole and the hole on the side of the lifter? Stuck brake caliper pistons can sometime be broken loose this way.

About those stuck spark plugs use penetrating oil about once a month or so until you do the rebuild, ya never know...

Good luck!!!

 

I hit them with Kroil ones already. I "hope" that after several heat cycles and using lots of oil it will free them up. Aluminum threads with iron threads and sitting for 46 years took its toll. I wish they would have use some antiseeze on them in 1970. I have a receipt that shows they were changed in 1970. It only has 1300 miles on it from 70 till 1974 and parked.

 

I took a set of mine apart and let them set for a very long time in WD40. about a month, then I would hold them in my hand and slam them on the flat surface. Took a while, but they all cam lose. Just a little oil and all work. Now just collecting parts for my 215 rebuild.

Gene

 

I got the last two freed up but I am not going to trust them. I had to get them far hotter than I would have liked and had to hit them harder than I feel comfortable with. I picked up two new ones to replace those two. Like I said before, This is only a temporary thing. The thing that I am surprised about is that the new ones are Melling and made in the USA. Anyone have experience with there lifters? I did not know they made lifters and did not know any flat tappet lifters were made in USA.

 

Sounds like they're pretty standard. Melling makes lots of valve train components and pump parts.

Be sure to use a proper camshaft break-in lube on the lobes.

- Eric

 

I will have to keep the RPM up on it also for a while. Same as braking in a new cam and lifters. Hopefully this time with less noise. I knew it had lots of noise, Not sure if you seen the videos. I didn't think it was a rod at all so I hope 12 stuck lifters was the noise, lol.

 

YOU NEED ZINC...get a zinc additive...its been sitting so long you need it

 

Use this on the cam lobes and lifter bottoms, available at speed shops.

 

I am good on the cam lube. I also have additive in the oil. When I changed oil last winter I put some cam lube in it because of it sitting so long. It has ran for about 60 seconds since then and for about 30 minutes with a drill on the oil pump. I am going to leave this same oil in it and just coat the cam and lifters. After it is ran a couple heat cycles I do plan to change it then.