Hello All,

Well I'm into it as much as I've ever been on a 1968 Olds 98 Convertible. I thought I had a head gasket leaking so I pulled both heads only to find that it was actually a leaking freeze plug. Bummer for sure!

So I'm into the project and have a couple of question I'd be grateful with assistance.

1. The car has never run well so I decided to rebuild the QJET at the same time. The primary rods have 46 stamped on them. Some info I see floating around says they should be 49B. If I put in 52's with corresponding jets would I be ok? I can't find 46's nor reuse the existing ones since I bent them fantastically (90 degrees about 1/4" from tip) while putting the carb back together. Can I bend back and reuse-not perfectly straight?

2. The car has always had a mechanical tapping noise (sounding more metallic than exhaust-ish). I removed all of the lifters from the block (keeping track of where they go) When I push down on the hydraulic lifters I notice that 13 of them have zero movement, 2 have about 1/16" of movement (small piston inside casing) and one has about 3/16" movement. What is acceptable? I see they are sold as sets for the most part. Can I buy 4 or should I buy a set? Or is this movement ok and I'm chasing the wrong thing.

3. The tapping was quite loud so I'm also thinking maybe a piston rod is toast or the bearing to the crankshaft is fried. Is there a way to diagnose this without pulling the pan? A pain in the butt where the car is located.

Thanks so much for the hlp..

Signed,

Newbie (Tony)

 

I serviced two of the lifters that had movement, dunked them in oil and cycled them until all of the air bubbles came out. there is still movement of the piston in the cylinder?