Thread: Lifter Damage Like I Have Never Seen! PIC

Tweet

Has anyone seen this on a hydraulic roller lifter? This is out of a 1997 454 Vortec. No damage to cam that I can see! It was making a noise like a belt going bad with a tic. The tic was a flat spot on the roller. The others look fine, but they will all be replaced. Reading 213,000 mi but not sure if it's been replaced before.

The following is the noise it made before looking into it. Sounds like a belt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSxAqEUQIU4

I got all lifters replaced and everything put back together. Now I’m fighting a timing issue. I need to pull the distributor out again as I think it’s off by one or two teeth. I can’t adjust any further as it sits. Also, I can hear more noise from the drivers side of the engine and the other side is nice and quiet. Am I correct in assuming there may be cam damage?

My opinion??
That cam has damage.

Left side noisy---that lifter galley may not be getting oil pressure--when you take the dist out for retiming--run a pre oiler and see if you get oil to left side rockers

I work at a dealer and we don't see many big blocks but we did have half a dozen of the 5.3's in the last few years that pitted the lifters and ate the cams just like yours did in the picture. Chevy never said if they figured out a cause but there is a bulletin that said if any of the lifters look like yours to replace them all. Almost made it seem to me like they knew they had a batch of lifters that didn't get hardened or something. And I hate to tell you but the cam is probably bad too.

Cam HAS TO BE SHOT. you have to have alot of metal floating around also.
If it were mine I would tear it down and rebuild it, or just throw a crate engine in the car.

I had a buddy that had a roller lifter look like that before, and he found a piece of junk in the oil passage in the lifter it's self. It had either slowed or stoped the flow of oil to the roller. He had to replace both the cam and the lifters. Kurt

with 213,000 mile DO NOT try to repair the engine,pull it out and rebuild from the ground up,you will be money ahead,just repairing it you will have one problem after another.

Originally Posted by hotrodstude

with 213,000 mile DO NOT try to repair the engine,pull it out and rebuild from the ground up,you will be money ahead,just repairing it you will have one problem after another.

I agree completely. At 213k she's pretty used up ..................

Kitz