Collapsed lifter

[TestPoint]

I have what I think is a collapsed hydraulic lifter on a '00 302 V8. At first diagnosed it as a blown exhaust header gasket but that didn't fix it. The engine only has 13k miles on it but spent 10 years in a JY warehouse before I installed it into an '82 Volvo wagon. Tried a can of RESTORE in full synthetic 5w30 that has 2,000 miles on it. Sometimes ticks awful, other times quite. Sure appears that the cylinder is not firing at all when all the ticking is going on.

Any suggestions before I start taking it apart.

Appears to be #1 cylinder which means that the intake manifold may not have to come off. Been about 50 years since I fished worn lifters out of a '56 Chevy. Anything changed?

 

[TestPoint]

Looked at the rocker arm in the big Ford book and it doesn't appear adjustable. Had the thought that if the cylinder was not firing properly I should be getting a misfire code . . . which I am not.

What else could be causing such a loud rpm sensitive 'tick' from the right front of the engine?

Just thinking before removing the valve cover.

 

[SoHK_alumni]

A failed lifer does sound like the most likely culprit. Seems that depending on where in the compression cycle the engine stops, you get a lifter that collapses and then fails to pump back up once you restart the engine.

It might be poor oil pressure but since the symptoms always seem centered on the same location, a lifter still seems the prime suspect. If I had to guess, that lifter sat for those years at the breakers yard trying to hold it's valve fully open.

No way to get the lifter out without removing the intake manifold on the late SBF's. The roller lifters have both alignment forks and spring keepers.

As a suggestion, try using an adjustable advance timing light to ID the culprit:

Paint the TDC line on the harmonic balancer and then using the timing advance on the light, try to find the mark in time with the "tick" -- you'll probably have to try several ignition wires (use the same bank).

Knowing which plug and how much advance you dialed into the light will let you work out how far from TDC #1 the tick occurs. From there, you can either work out the cam lobe from the cam timing, or pull the valve cover, roll the engine to the same point and see which valve is starting to open.

Sightly different approach is to wrap the harmonic balancer with masking tape. Mark and number indexing lines all the way around the balancer and again, hit it with a timing light. When you get the light to strobe with the tick, you'll know where on the crank the tick occurs. -- just remember, base timing at idle is about 20° btdc.

Used to be you could buy indexed tape for different balancers, not sure if those are still available.

 

[TestPoint]

Thanks for the comments!

The problem was a come-and-go one so nothing would stay still enough to hit it. I tried a can of RESTORE which changed the come-and-go somewhat but it always came back. The oil only had 2000 miles on it from start up but I changed it anyway to the factory 10w30 dino oil and the tick has gone away for the few miles since.

The oil was pretty discolored for so few miles and since I had both valve covers and oil pan off that was pretty strange for such a clean engine.

I will just have to keep an ear out for its return.