Damaged lifter

[shadetree]

One of the worse cases of a damaged lifter I have ever seen. The bottom of the lifter is completely worn away exposing the piston and spring inside the lifter. Lifter is out of a 70 Mustang 428 engine. Symptom was blue smoke out of the left bank, and engine miss after warm up. Plug examination showed oil on #7 plug. Compression on that cylinder was approx 20 Lbs lower than average. Diagnosis was a stuck/broken ring. Upon disassembly, the damaged lifter was located, and it was directly under #7 piston. When the lifter slowly came apart, the debris was slung up into the cylinder badly scoring the cylinder walls and rings. Sorry for the fuzzy pix.
This engine did not have that many miles on it. It had been driven very little since it was bebuilt. Assumption is that the cam was not broken in properly when installed.shady

 

[Bent Bolt]

How are the rest of the lifters ?? I do believe some 428 were solid lifter blocks with no oil provision for hydraulic lifters.


Just a thought.

 

[shadetree]

How are the rest of the lifters ?? I do believe some 428 were solid lifter blocks with no oil provision for hydraulic lifters.


Just a thought.

It's a hydraulic block. Other lifters are fine.shady

 

[Will]

What other cases of damaged lifters have you seen?

 

[B2 Addict]

Wow, this brings back memories! Back years ago, I had a TRW lifter "explode" in a small block chevy!! Yes, it literally exploded, there was basically nothing left of it. I was giving it all she had it made a loud noise & started bellowing smoke so bad you couldn't see behind you, then slowly came to a stop on the side of the road.

The engine had very little miles on it at all, we pulled it apart & found tiny fragments of what used to be the lifter all through the engine & in the oil pan. We contacted TRW & they had us send all the pieces to them, they said they had never seen that happen & that it must have been a flaw in the lifter itself. They actually reimbursed us for all the damaged parts...pretty much everything internal............Not to take away from the O.P., just wanted to share the worst damage to a lifter I had ever seen!

 

[shadetree]

What other cases of damaged lifters have you seen?

Don't know why it matters, but many. I didn't start doing this yesterday. I have seen them break, come apart, sieze in the bores, etc. But what I found unusual was the wear on this lifter and it was still working. As expected, the camshaft is toast also.shady

 

[ranger_mclaren]

Been there with my 2.3 my lifter acutully fell out on my #4 piston on my way to work and belive it or not lifter wastn't that bad cam was toast tho.