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About half of my lifters aren't spinning. Do I need to replace the lifters and cam? Can I replace them with the engine in the car? Does anyone have any links?

Quote:

Here's a thread talking about lifters.
https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?start=0&topic_id=15045&order=ASC&status=&mode=0

I'll be interested to hear responses, I have a noisy hydraulic lifter and thinking I may need to replace it.

If they're not spinning, it could be that they have been expanded because the valves were stuck at one time, e.g.

Lifter stuck, barrel expanded

Most 288s would be solid lifters.

My advice is to adjust the valves and keep driving the car long into the future. I hardly ever have a car here where all 16 are spinning and while not perhaps ideal, it doesn't seem to make one whit of difference.

I've had a number of older engines that have shown some lifters spinning and some not. Also pushrods on OHV engines. I never had any problems with them.

I would not put either new lifters or used lifters from another engine on a used cam.


If you remove any lifters from a used engine, keep track of where they go and put them back exactly where they were.

If the engine runs well with minimal valve train noise, it's probably best to leave it alone, unless an adjustment is clearly needed.

Valve lash adjustment on older engines can be complicated by wear on lifters and valve stems, which can make using a feeler gauge difficult.

In such cases, you may have to adjust by ear, which involves loosening each valve lifter adjustment and decreasing clearance just to the point of eliminating any noise, then backing off another fraction and locking the adjustment.

A little excess clearance is better than too little. Make adjustments hot as directed by the shop manual. Too little clearnce will burn valves.

Probably just the wear pattern that's developed over the miles and like Ross says, to paraphrase, don't amount to a hill of beans. In fact they might just be a bit lose, if they rotate. The oiling doesn't promote it nor the motion. It doesn't follow the coriolis effect either.
We used to joke about worn muffler bearings, maybe we need some lifter bearings here?