I'm about to replace all of my hydraulic valve lifters, how hard is it to do it? Will i have to put on a new headgasket (as in how deep do i have to go)? I'm no pro on engines, i've only done quite simple things, is it hard?

Thanks for any help!

 

Is there a back story to this??? Why are you replacing all of your lifters?

Anyway, to replace the lifters, you'll need to remove the valve covers to gain access to the rocker arms and the intake manifold to gain access to the lifter valley. Loosen all of the rocker arms so you can remove the push rods. Keep the push rods not only in order from where they came, but keep track of which end was up. I'll typically take a box and punch holes in it. In the case of the 4.3L, 6 holes down one edge and 6 down the opposite edge on the top of the box. Put an arrow in the center to denote the front of the engine. Then simply remove the push rods one by one and place them into their respective hole in the box. You should then be able to remove the lifters from their bores. Reassembly is reverse of disassembly.

If you need torque values or a quick how-to on how to properly adjust your rockers, let us know. I can't get any more specific than that without knowing the year of the vehicle, but that is pretty much the same no matter what.

*EDIT* - Nevermind, I see your other posts... One thing that you will want to be sure is to check the cam lobe and make sure that it is the same as the other lobes. If it is an intake lobe, check it against the other intake lobes, etc. The lifters may not be the problem.

 

is there a way of checking the cam lobe without taking the camshaft out? i already measured the travel distance of the pushrods and they were good, but i dont know how accurate that measurement was. are there any gaskets i should get in advance before taking apart the intake manifold? (the reason i ask is that where i live blazers arent common, neither are the gaskets so ill have to order them from the us, which takes 1-2 weeks.)

*Combining consecutive posts.*

and also, are the rockerarms interchangeable? only the pushrods are specific, right?


*EDIT by swartlkk* - Combining consecutive posts. Please use the edit function to add additional information to your post if another member has not yet replied. Thank you!

 

an intake manifold gasket kit should contain the gaskets you need to do the job. manifold gaskets, distributor gasket, etc etc should be in the kit. you may want valve cover gaskets as well if yours arent in good shape.

i wil defer to swartlkk on the rocker/pushrod questions since ive never kept track of where pushrods or rockers came from or where they went back when disassembling or reassembling an engine.

 

thanks, one more thing though, can i replace just one lifter or should i do them all at once? since they arent super expensive [&:]

 

It all depends on how long you want your vehicle to run for. If you have the extra money now, I would replace all of them. You don't want what happened to one of them to start happening to the rest that are the same age and have seen the same conditions. One benefit of not doing them all is that you only have to adjust that one valve. Its your call.

What did you use to measure the lift at the pushrod? Did you do it with the rockers lightly on? Really the only way to do it is with a dial indicator on a magnetic base. I would recommend checking the lift at the lifter body with the dial indicator base held on the intake port side of the heads. Put the dial indicator on the lifter and rotate the engine until you reach the lowest point in the lifter's travel. Zero the indicator and rotate the engine over, recording the highest value. Repeat on at least one other lifter associated with the same type valve (intake or exhaust).

You really have to pull the intake manifold off whether you are doing a cam swap or just changing out a lifter so... I guess I'm saying that if you find your cam is bad, then you already have the intake off, then comes the fun part of stripping everything off the front of the motor to get the cam out...

For about a day before you put the lifters in, put them into a bucket of motor oil. This will help them prime so you won't have a ton of tapping on initial startup.

Also, one quick question. How did the spark plug look on the cylinder with the problem?

 

thanks! the sparkplug on that cylinder looked just like all the others, so i guess the valves are opening and closing enough. i've driven about 800 miles with the knocking sound now, so id like to get rid of it [8D]. one completely different though, my car has been stalling when im driving a couple of times now, i think that my ignitionwires are a bit loose, could this be the problem? and one last thing, when i turn the ignition on without cranking the engine when the engine is cold, it takes up to 5 seconds before all lights on the dash come on, this seems quite odd does'nt it? when the engine is hot they come on the instant i turn the key to the on position (its a bit cold over here). oh and do i need a new intake manifold gasket?