Thread: 260 lifters

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OK, as stated in my profile, I have a cutlass with a 260 slightly modded. However, its been a bad weekend for the old girl. After showing up a little honda civic, i was greeted to the sound of fuel being driven back out the carb. On the side of the road, I cracked of the valve covers only to find that #3 cylinders exhaust valve wasnt opening. Pulling out both pushrods, I managed to limp it home(after replacing the valve covers, of course). I have managed to recover all of the 16 lifters but one. Ironically, the one that failed. This thing would rather break apart then come out. Ive tried WD40, heat, lifter puller(Yeah, Right!) and oiling the outside and letting it sit. And ideas? I kind of need this car. The eagle wont be legal for a week.(brakes are needed, right?)

The end of your lifter is probably mushroomed, along with a deceased lobe on your camshaft.

Here's the good news...remove the camshaft (you need a new one anyway) and hold a very strong "reacher" magnet-on-a-stick under the bad lifter. Then push the lifter DOWN out of its bore and CAREFULLY extract it through the cam bore on the magnet.

The worst one I did was the furthest-back lifter on a Chevy 250. That's a long reach, and lots of prayers while guiding the lifter back.

OK, its not as bad as that. Heres the problem. First of all, its not stuck at the bottom of the bore. Its at the top. My camshaft is not lobed off (fortuantly), but the problem is that it wont lift up and out. I would really like to save this camshaft, as it is a .410 lift custom ground for this engine. It will travel the route of the guide down, but it just wont lift out. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Actually, thats not a bad idea. I was thinking of using my little dremmel with the diamond tip and grooving 4 parts and collapsing the thing, but that would leave shards everywhere. The slide hammer, thats a good idea. Thanks!

Im not a big fan of the grease approach. I was going to take a sponge, with a sheet magnet under it, and hit it afterwards with the shop-vac. However, I already have the hone, and have already honed the others. Thanks for the advice.

Update: Found out that there was a tiny ridge of steel stopping me. It had formed around the entire lifter. Solution? Place a sheet magnet under the lifter on the camshaft, and Use a Dremel with a small grinding wheel to remove the lip. Unless anyone hasnt heard of these things, their great. Small and highspeed, they can remove almost anything with the right bit. Anyway, the lifter is out, the new one is in and the valvetrain is working fine. Thanks for the advice madgrinder and streets. It kept my sanity!