'66 389--- hydraulic lifters

Hi all,
This is my first post here and im hoping you can help......


i have a '66 389 in my '56 GMC stepside - engine code WW.

Does anyone know if i need to squeeze the hydraulic lifters to remove oil before i refit them or are they single use?
My rocker nuts are not adjustable and just nip down onto the stud and i presume the lifter controlls ALL the lash???

cheers in advance. Andy.  

UKstepside Andy welcome aboard:

If you have removed them and are going to reuse them in there respective posistions. Then No just reinstall them. Lube the cam lobe and the lifter bottom with Moly Paste (LUBE).

If you purchased them with a new cam follow what the cam maker says to do. The old school was to pump them up. The new way of installing them is really cleaning the shipping oil from them. Put moly lube on them and install them. Let them clatter. Some will take longer to pump up than others. But not too worry. It should eventually go away.

Hope that helps Andy the old school way is a No-No...

Bob aka-pepsi1  

Hello ukstepside

Welcome, nice truck. We don't know how much you know forgive me if you already know this.

You can only use used lifters on the cam they were previously run on and you must put them back in exactly the same hole they came out of otherwise you risk cam failure.

You can run NEW lifters on an old cam but you should go through the new cam break in process if you do this.

You can never run old lifters on a new cam, you will have cam failure quickly.

As far as draining the oil from your lifters it is not necessary, you can just toss them in as is. The benefit of draining the oil in your case is simply to get any old dirty oil out.

As far as starting the motor with your lifters dry if you drain them, I personally would never do it. It just doesn't make sense to me to intentionally allow the lifter "piston" to bottom out hard and suddenly and also allow the lifter bottom to bottom out hard and suddenly against the cam. Maybe it's ok to do, I'm not a cam/lifter designer but I don't see any reason not to take a little precaution by spinning up the oil pump with a drill to fill the lifters in advance. I for one do not enjoy changing cams and cleaning out the shredded metal in a motor caused by a can failure I possibly could have prevented with 10 extra minutes of work.

Just curious, why did you remove the lifters?  

You ca  

you can also soak the new lifters in oil till the bubbles stop. coffee can,qt of break in oil. fill over the top. if in a hurry you can pump the lifters with a push rod.

you could do the old lifter one at a time in a smaller can to keep them in order.

a good way to keep lifters in order. take a 4x4 block of wood drill 16 3/4" holes about 1" deep. mark the front. or save an old lifter box  
76 455/4spd TRANS AM
69 GRAND PRIX 406/5SPD

ukstepside

Rowsley's tip is another good "trick". This will eliminate the need to prime the motor with the oil pump unless the motor is a new build.