BAD lifter noise.

[Moloko]

I just finished rebuilding the motor in the Chevette, and my girlfriend drove it to work for one day, and on the way home it was tapping hard from the valvetrain.

I pulled the covers off, and 7 of the 8 lifters were frozen "up", or fully expanded. I replaced the lifters, and even if you take a hammer to some of them they will not collapse again. Now with the new lifters, there is too much slack, they will not fully "pump up".

Is there something I'm missing here, or is the oil passeges in the head or cam tower clogged? Perhaps with whatever caused the lifters to freeze? The motor has 30psi of oil pressure when warm at idle with 10-30 in it, and oil is coming out of the cam and rockers while it's running.

I'm trying to find a solution without pulling the head bolts, since the engine is nicely painted, but I'm running out of options.

[rad15E]

do you have a aftermarker cam

[Moloko]

Nope, everything is stock. Like I said she drove it for a day no problem, they the lifters all jammed.

[rad15E]

there has to be a mismatch,if all parts come from the same motor it might be hard to find,first thing i would do, with a cold motor turn one of the cam lobes straight up,with a feeler gauge measure the distance between the cam and the follower divide that by 1.6 to get a tru mearsurement,or lift the follower up to the cam and measure between the follower and valve

[Moloko]

This ran before for the three years we had the car, only thing I changed now was the lifters because the old ones jammed.