lifters sticking up a little? pics

[cerberusaardvark]

so i finally cleaned and re lubricated my lifters and when i put them back in, a few were sticking up and were not flush with the block.

i put the head and rocker assemblies in place on the drivers side and when i looked after i tightened the rocker assemblies, i saw the lifters had all gone flush. i can push on the arm a little and feel the pushrod going in and springing back up a little freely.

on the passengers side, there were also some lifters sticking up. when i fitted the rocker assemblies and tightened them, two stayed up.

im wondering if i need to take the head off and work them in flush or will they seat themselves?

comparison of the drivers side with passengers side

also a shot of my piston heads and block cleaned as best as i could. the black marks u see were impssible to get off and are flush with the head to the feel. it was just caked on for so long.

 

[Anime]

The lifters are not all going to sit flush or at the same position. If they do, they aren't sitting down in the block correctly.

The bottom roller sits on the camshaft lobes, and depending on the position, the lifters go up or down to push the valve open or release it to close, via the pushrod and the rocker arm.

What you want is all of the lifters back in their original position. Barring that, you want all the lifters in the holes so that they drop in with no resistance and aren't sticking to the walls in the slightest. Oil will free them up some, but if there is even minimal resistance, you risk there not being a place for the oil to get to, and having some really well worn/scratched up lifters immediately after the first startup.

Pistons and everything looks fine, just be sure the surfaces are squeaky clean so the gaskets do not get contaminated before they seal. If you want clean pistons/valves/etc. use top tier fuel like Chevron/Shell/etc.

 

[cerberusaardvark]

when i cleaned the lifters i took off the top cap and the first part of the plunger and submersed the rest of the lifter in brake cleaner and plunged it up and down and watched all the oil and black gunk come out.

when it was clean i submersed it in atf and plunger it for awhile. i cleaned the piston head and mating surfaces with brake cleaner and a scotchbrite pad. i was going to flush with fresh oil before i really turn it on and let it run.

so as you said, all the lifters werent all at the same position when i took them out, but on the drivers side you can see that they are all sitting flush now. is that something i should be worried about? i did turn the crank a little to clean the cylinder bores a bit

also, when i put the passenger side head in it scraped a tiny bit of the red sealer off on the outer line at the rear of the block. its not around any of the water passageways