LIFTER tick now full blown knock

[kbear951]

Yesterday my lifter tick became a lifter knock so I had it towed. I pulled off the engine cover and saw the right side of the engine was wet. I don’t think the two are related? Being that I still owe a shitload of money on the car, I guess I’m replacing the lifters. Still trying to decide if I should just go ahead and do an LS3 conversion +/- cam swap? Idk bc I live in California and was just told by a mechanic that next year mods will be illegal here? Idk how the hell they plan for that to work….but…. I don’t know a lot much at all about this sort of stuff -Is the cam swap necessary bc it will eventually fail as well or is that just for suping it up more? Getting more horsepower sounds great and all, but my primary goal is just to have this car last me as long as possible so I can pay it off without any other major stuff breaking. I have 125,000 miles on it. Any tips on how to find a shop that actually knows what they are doing and how to do this sort of work on these cars?

[hawkyV8]

Kind of a lot to unpack here. I can't speak to any of the Cali related problems because thankfully I live in the midwest.


As far as the lifter knock goes there are a few things you or your shop can try. Remove the valve covers and check the rockers for play. Hopefully everything is solid. Next you could remove the intake manifold and then the valley cover. Then you can see into the engine. there are "windows" in the block that allow visual access to the lifters for cylinders 1/2 and 7/8. If these appear fine that doesn't mean the other 12 aren't bad but it does give you some information. Next, drain the oil into a very clean pan and run a magnet through the oil. If anything beyond a tiny amount of fine metal is picked up you have trouble.



A cam swap is never "necessary" but it is probably the best way to boost power. But since you owe a lot on the car it might be best consider mods only after you own the car. Having said that, if you have to replace the cam and lifters anyway it might be a good time to upgrade everything. Personally, I wouldn't being thinking about a new cam unless I was able to upgrade the rest of the valvetrain too. And I would certainly being checking the motor over thoroughly (bearings, cylinders, rings, etc.) especially with the mileage that is on yours.


Please follow up and let us know how things are playing out. Good luck

[Hitrodslp]

i recently had a lifter tick, and pulling the valvecovers i found one of my rockers loose, even though it was torqued down all the way....
i thought or hoped i had just collapsed a lifter, but i ended up pulling the heads
and found my #6 intake lifter spun 90 degrees
i ended up pulling the cam and the lobe was chewed up prettty good...luckily the lifter hadnt fragmented apart inside the motor cuz the other lobes looked ok...

also this is a cammed car that has been running a cam since april. stock lifters.
its crazy, but you would need to take it apart slowly to see what and where the problem lays...find a decent shop, hopefully some recommendations on here / local hot rodders for your area...
sucks ....

[InFiD3ViL]

Kbear, don't let the mileage put you off. As long as the engine was taken care of and had regular maintenance then mileage means very little on these engines. 125k miles is nothing on an LS that was taken care of. I hydrolocked my original engine, an L99. It had 153,300 miles on it when I disassembled it, and it looked amazing inside. Little to no visible wear, very little oil tarnishing/staining, and fantastic crosshatch in the cylinders. Unfortunately, you seem to have run into the biggest weak spot on the LS engine - the valvetrain (Especially on an L99). The plus side is it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to beef the ole girl up and build a stout engine that can handle much higher power numbers reliably. You just have to build it smart.

Originally Posted by Hitrodslp

i recently had a lifter tick, and pulling the valvecovers i found one of my rockers loose, even though it was torqued down all the way....
i thought or hoped i had just collapsed a lifter, but i ended up pulling the heads
and found my #6 intake lifter spun 90 degrees
i ended up pulling the cam and the lobe was chewed up prettty good...luckily the lifter hadnt fragmented apart inside the motor cuz the other lobes looked ok...

also this is a cammed car that has been running a cam since april. stock lifters.
its crazy, but you would need to take it apart slowly to see what and where the problem lays...find a decent shop, hopefully some recommendations on here / local hot rodders for your area...
sucks ....

I'm assuming it was a bad lifter tray? This is exactly why I want to swap to link bar lifters next year...then again link bars can fail too, but I hear it is much less likely than a lifter tray issue.

[morepowerjoe]

It's unfortunate that you live in Cali because a cam swap with the tune to run it would have your car fail at the inspection shop and then you can't get your registration. So your only option is to have it all fixed to stock condition.

[bayarea408]

L99 car, AFM issues

[daktah]

figure I'd ask here than make a new thread. my 55k mile engine recently has developed (well I recently noticed it at least) the trademark hot lifter tick and damn does it make it sound like a hoopty at idle. I'm thinking about finally jumping in with a cam so it would be a good excuse to get new lifters and trays while I'm at it. would ls7 lifters fix the tick permanently? do I have to go aftermarket? I was also looking at some morel 5315s (now 7717) since they're supposed to be better than ls7s for only a bit more and if they won't tick then I'd just go with them.

[morepowerjoe]

Originally Posted by daktah

figure I'd ask here than make a new thread. my 55k mile engine recently has developed (well I recently noticed it at least) the trademark hot lifter tick and damn does it make it sound like a hoopty at idle. I'm thinking about finally jumping in with a cam so it would be a good excuse to get new lifters and trays while I'm at it. would ls7 lifters fix the tick permanently? do I have to go aftermarket? I was also looking at some morel 5315s (now 7717) since they're supposed to be better than ls7s for only a bit more and if they won't tick then I'd just go with them.

Basiccally ls7 lifters are what you have in there already so if you want to upgrade from stock it would have to be a high performance lifter like the gm performance racing lifters or others out there. I can only attest the gm racing lifters because that's all I have used and believe that they are a great lifter for the budget minded but also there more expensive ones out there like the johnson lifters which are better in my opinion but are a little more involved in the installatiion process because you have to actually have to measure for pushrods.

[daktah]

I see. well I'm not intending to make a million horsepower or revving to the moon so I don't think I'll need $100 a pop balls to the wall nascar grade racing lifters, all I want is 500 to 550 BHP, 7,000 redline, and for this damn ticking to be gone and never return.