Re: 1st time startup

Posted by Ross On 2010/12/2 19:39:34

I just installed a set in the Balboa's 327. Fired it for the first time this evening, as a matter of fact. After about 3 minutes of clatter all was quiet on the western front. Big smiles in Parkton this evening.

I used to painstakingly clean those darn lifters and pressure test them with a rig I built, but more often than I care to recall would still have one tap at a hot slow idle. The $275 seems quite the bargain.

Interesting factoid about those lifters: if you have an engine with a valve stuck down and ram it open with the starter or even by hand, that lifter will be ruined. That's because the barrels of those lifters are quite thin and will actually expand from the hydraulic pressure within as it attempts to lift the stuck valve. Sometimes it expands enough that its hard to get the lifter to come out of the tappet. That's a dead giveaway as to its health. Once the barrel is big it will never hold quiet at an idle--on a running engine look for a stream of oil coming around the top of the lifter. That's another giveaway.