Lifter help please...

[Falcons Talon]

I've replaced all the lifter in my 92, but when cranked her up, the lifters were still knocking. I soaked them for two days and I replaced all the pushrods. I think I may have screwed up because I torqued down the rocker arms without having the lifter on the base of the cam lobe. When I torqued down the rocker arms for the lifters that were up, the pushrod compressed the lifter. Is this what I am doing wrong. Is that why my lifters are knocking? I don't want to take her to the shop and dish out the bucks for something I can do myself. Help Please...

[93GTDIN]

If your rockers are compressing your lifter all the way, something is wrong. You should be able to acheive the proper preload of .015 (I think, look it up to be sure) as you reach the proper torque. Do you have stud mounter or pedestal rockers? Are they stock? Also, check your pushrod length.

[Falcons Talon]

They are not compressing the lifters all the way, maybe 1/4 inch or a little more. What is the difference between pedestal and stud? I'm not getting any kind of a reading on oil pressure, but I think the sending oil pressure sending unit died. When I cranked her up with the new lifters installed, they started knocking immediately.

[bigblockcoupe]

first off verify that it is the sending unit and not something else if you have no oil pressure that is why it's knocking.

[Falcons Talon]

Is there an easy way to change out the pump, or do I have to follow Chiltons to the T?

[HotRoddin]

Bud you need to try and find out whats wrong before you start changing parts out. If you put new lifters in it and have no oil pressure you'd be better off making sure you have a fix before you crank it up again, otherwise you're gonna be putting another set of lifters and a cam in it because yours are gonna go flat as a table top.
Have you tried putting an oil pump drive in and turning it with a drill motor ?

[bigblockcoupe]

Originally posted by Falcons Talon
Is there an easy way to change out the pump, or do I have to follow Chiltons to the T?

ok what makes you think the pump is bad? Have you checked oil pressure yet? I will try to help you anyway I can but before you start tearing it apart lets figure out exactly what is wrong with it. and no changing the pump is pretty simple you don't have to follow the book.

[Falcons Talon]

I wanted to change out the pump anyways before it went bad. It's a stock pump, and I wanted to replace it anyways. Can you help me w/ the easy method?

What would I check for loss of oil pressure? Where would I start to look? I just put new head gaskets on after having the heads shaved for slight warpage. I don't really want to crank her up again if it is the oil pump.

[fiveohpatrol]

Is your gage showing no oil pressure at all? or is it just low?

If none at all, then most likely something got down into the oil pump when you changed the head gaskets, thats what happened to me a couple years ago. My bearings were all scorched too, and I only ran it for a few minutes.

You really need to torque your rockers down on the base circle of the cam. This is the only way you will get an accurate torque reading, because the spring will be pushing up on the rockers with the same amount of force on each one.
BUT I really think that most of the noise is from no oil pressure. Its exactly what I went through, the pump locked up after a head gasket change, and I thought it was the sending unit that was making me see no oil pressure, and the noise was from the rockers that were mis-adjusted. BOY WAS I WRONG! I guess i was just in denial at the time.

Ok enough about me. What you need to do to see if your pump is still in working order is to try to spin the pump by hand. You can do this by removing your distributor, and sticking a combination of a 1/4" socket (1/4"drive as well) with a long extension down in the distributor hole. The 1/4" socket will fit over the oil pump driveshaft. You then turn it by hand, and if there is no resistance, then your pump driveshaft has snapped because your pump locked up. If you feel tension but can turn it with a socket wrench, then your pump is NOT locked up. But make sure the tension is not the socket rubbing inside the hole.

Or then again, you could always just drain the oil, look for metal particles in it, and then bang on the pan and listen for the broken shaft clanging around in there.

good luck

[93GTDIN]

buy the 1.99 oil pressure sending unit to establish if thats the problem. Dont run the engine forever, just for a second or two, just long enough to establish oil pressure.

[Falcons Talon]

Well, I got the extension to spin the pump driveshaft and as I was trying to seat the socket end over the pump driveshaft shaft, the shaft fell into the pan...I'm assuming that the shaft is snapped, or can it just be pulled out of the pump easily...Either way, I have to now drop the pan to get it out. I really want to do it myself, as the mechanics I've spoken to talk of removing the whole enging to do it with a cost of $250-400.00 for labor alone. I don't have those kind of bucks. I guess I'm nervous about this because of the lifting of the block. Can anyone give me some advice or tips, or a simple preocedure to do this? Thanks in advance, and thanks to all that have helped already.

[bigblockcoupe]

ok it's pretty easy just remove the intake tubing between the tb and maf meter and unbolt the fan shroud from the radiator then just let it hang on the fan then jack the car up and set jack stands under the subframe remove the motor mount bolts and slide a jack in from the side underneath the trans you will probably need a wood block on the jack position it so it's hitting the bellhousing and jack it up until the motor mounts clear the k-member this will give you enough room to drop the pan and get the oil pump and sump out you won't be able to get the pan all the way out but you will have plenty of room to manuever it around to replace the gaskets and replace the pump don't try to put the shaft in from the bottom after you have everything back together mark the distributor and pull it out and drop the shaft in from the top it's kinda tricky to get it in the hole so get you a good flashlight and a pair of long skinny pliers some guys use a long 1/4" extension and a 1/4" skinny chrome socket but the pliers work best for me you won't be able to get the distibutor back in if you don't get the shaft all the way into the oil pump so don't worry about alignment or if it's all the way in because if the distributor goes all the way in the rod is in the correct position be sure to fill the new pump with assembly lube like lubri-plate this way it's primed. and there is no need to drain the cooling system or remove the radiator hoses you only have to remove what i previously stated the motor won't move enough to warrant removing anything else. i just did this on my coupe about 2 weeks ago and it went off w/o a hitch with the lubri-plate you don't have to spin the pump to prime it the lubriplate is thick and primes the pump so as soon as you start the motor it will start pumping oil you can tell when it's pumping because the valvetrain will suddenly get quiet.