Thread: lifter is stuck?

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my car has been sitting for about 4 months. when i went to start the car the other day, it ran really rough so i shut it down. the local hot rod shop said that it is possible that my hydralic lifter is stuck. he said to change the oil and start the engine and it will unstick itself. is that true. the motor sounds really bad and i dont want to run it too long any sugestions would be apreciated

just to be safe i would change the oil and pull the intake manifold and get a lifter removal tool, i think auto zone loans them fro free. and pull all the lifters and clean them and make sure they go in the same hole {im sure you know that but i thought i would say it anyway} this way no chances will be taken by just changing the oil and just starting the car without being sure or it could be something stupid like a loose plug wire
hope this helped good luck
TYLER

Dont ya hate that? It's always a can of worms. In my case its a 55 gal. drum of worms. Its always the stupid $2.00 problem after I tear up $200.00 worth of stuff. Good luck man. I'm with the other guy, it's always better to be safe than to be sorry and a $30.00 gasket set is a lot cheaper than a new motor. But, then again like he said, could be a plug wire. I have over the years made myself a check list to go over for the small stuff to eliminate the problem. That came with age. I believe its called wisdome. Or maybe just sick of spending $$$$ on my bad ideas. Good luck!

Run a cranking compression test. If your hydraulic lifter is stuck, it should have a low pressure on one cylinder, as it is keeping a valve open. Should you find that it does have a bad lifter, its probably easier just to change them all. Their not that expensive if your running stock, and its never fun to have to replace them 3 months after you replaced this one. Be sure to pull the distributor wire while you are testing, and i would reccomend removing the fuel line and placing a collector. Hope this helps

Hmm....4 months you say? How old is the gas in the car? If it's more than 4-5 months old, I'd bet it's bad gas. Gas nowadays don't last very long at all. Drain your tank and line and make sure your carb jets are squirting gas when you move the throttle linkage. It may have also schlaqued on you too including inside the fuel line and plugged it up quite a bit. If it did, it will run lean and could also backfire through the intake or exhaust. The schlaqued gas could also gum up your Carb (which is why I said to verify that your jets are pumping gas) and/or cause your intake and exhaust valves to stick. One thing that you might try to free the valves (and this is really no joke here, I had to do the exact same thing last spring when I started my '55 for the first time in 6 months) start the engine and SLOWLY pour a SMALL amount (no more than half a quart) of Automatic Transmission Fluid into the carburetor. Don't let the engine die while you are doing this or you'll have fouled plugs.

It sounds wrong I know; but, what will happen is that when the ATF burns in the cylinder, believe it or not, it will lubricate the valve stems and can free them up. If this is the problem, it could be solved for as little as the cost of a half a quart of ATF fluid. It may not too; but, before I'd go pulling anything, it is something I would definitely try.

Good Luck,
Dutch

First of all,,without knowing what kind of car or motor you are talking about it's would be hard to give you the complete solution.
Having said that,,4 months sitting isn't long enough to create major problem's, unless you had those problems already.
Firechicken's solution won't hurt your motor as long as you just use a very small amount of transmision fluid,,,you can also quite safely put about a half to a full litre of transmision fluid in your oil as well,,,this will shift any resin build up and unstick many parts,,,and again without knowing the exact type of engine you talking about,,,i'd say check under your dist cap for moisture.
Post more info soon and i'll try help out. G'luck.

Originally posted by 65malibu
my car has been sitting for about 4 months. when i went to start the car the other day, it ran really rough so i shut it down. the local hot rod shop said that it is possible that my hydralic lifter is stuck. he said to change the oil and start the engine and it will unstick itself. is that true. the motor sounds really bad and i dont want to run it too long any sugestions would be apreciated

Dont jump to to many conclusions. You dont need to pull anything down at this point. Make sure your oil is full,start the motor and estabilish immediately that you have oil pressure.If you have oil pressure and you have checked for the obvious things like plug wire off or a wire arcing on manifold or a cracked distributor cap or a bad rotor button, then its proberly safe to let the motor run until it warms up. In may clear up right away. If it doesn't add a qt of trans fluid to the oil and let it idle for aprox 20 minutes ,Dont drive the car until you change the oil and filter. I have been selling cars for a living most of my life, a lot of them older and I have done this many times.You can go to NAPA, autozone or whatever and buy an engine flush instead of using the transmission fluid. Follow the directions on the can. If this doesn't work ,pull the valve covers ,one at a time ,let it idle and watch the valves and rocker to see if you can locate the problem. iIf you do have to replace the lifters, make sure you put the whole (new) set in. Has anyone ever taught you how to adjust the valves? Its very simple on a small block chevy but if you dont know how get someone that knows well to show you. Good luck!