[DeTomaso] Adjusting Hydraulic Lifters

[Will Kooiman]

It seems like my car has always had a small oil leak.  My rockers started
clattering, so I checked the oil.  I was 3 quarts low.  Now that I think
about it, I owe Jim Narum a couple of quarts of oil.  Hey Jim, I'll buy your
dinner at Zio's next time.

In high school, we had a 68 T-bird with a 429.  We heard a clattering and
took the valve covers off.  We had 3 bent pushrods.  This was the factory
build.  Our assumption was that we lost oil pressure so that a lifter
temporarily collapsed.  The extra slack allowed the pushrod to come out of
the "cup" on the rocker.  When the lifter went back up, it bent the pushrod.
That's our guess anyway.  The point being that a temporarily collapsed
lifter could bend your pushrod.

In my Pantera, I heard engine noises that sounded like bolts being shaken up
in a coffee can.  I removed a valve cover to find all intake pushrods bent.
One exhaust pushrod was bent.  That turned out to be a jumped timing chain.

You could also have a wiped cam lobe.  That's the ugly one.  As it wipes, it
leaves cam and lifter bits all throughout the engine.  I don't know the
severity of the issue.  I would think the bits would plug up the oiling
passages.

If it were me, I'd pull the valve cover that's making noise, and then I'd
remove the rockers.  Pull the pushrods.  They should be straight with no
weird shiny parts.  Are they all straight?  Is just one bent?

Actually, the first thing I'd check is the oil level followed by the oil
pressure.

Oh yeah, there's no adjustment with hydraulic lifters.  If you don't find
anything bent or broken, I have a deer with no eyes.   (no-eye-deer).

Will.

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of MyCars
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 8:52 PM
To: detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Adjusting Hydraulic Lifters


My car is making a lot of rattling (clickedy clack) noise in the area of
my valve covers, this noise quiets down as the engine warms up.

I've been told that I need to adjust my valves. Can someone explain how
this is done, or point me to some instructions on how to accomplish
this. If there is somebody in the Seattle (Kent) area that has time to
mentor me through this, that would also be greatly appreciated.

I am using the Crower 15242 hydraulic camshaft.


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