Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Righto the other day i took the rockers out of my 3.9 V8 and so that the pushrods don't fall in i took them out, one of them stuck to the lifter and now the lifter has come out and if presumably floating in the valley somewhere. Does anyone have any ideas on how the F@#k im gunna get it back where it belongs without taking the engine apart. Its on the left bank, and i just rebuild the engine a maybe a thousand kays ago, what is easiest to take off. The head or the inlet.

Inlet has to come off to take the head off

damn doesn't seem like theres an easy way out

Magnet on a stick thing Hope you got lots of patience

nope im fuming already that a quik hour job has turned into a big one esecially seeing as all i was doing was taking the rockers out cause even after the rebuild it's got that shitty noise. but the engine looked to be in real good nick even before i pulled it apart

I have changed head gaskets without removing the manifold, just did them one at a time by loosening the inlet bolts on the opposite side.

G`day oops

If it`s one of the centre 4 you may have a show , if the end ones there`s not much room , and it will depend what position/height the lifter beside is.

If your lucky it will still be sitting upright and just out of its hole .

If you can see it at all your in with a chance .

If you find it and you don`t have a magnet thin/strong enough to pick it up to place in its hole .

It`s has been done by using an adhesive on a pushrod , the idea is to clean the pushrod so`s the adhesive sticks to it and stays but because the lifter will have oil on it the adhesive won`t be a very good stick .

Wait for the adhesive to harden and carefully place the lifter in its hole .

Gently twist and exert side ways force on the pushrod the oily lifter tack will let go and the pushrod and sticky will come out together .

If it works the first time easy but takes time .

Removing the inlet will work for sure and if your chasing rattles and you haven`t checked the pre load the inlet needs to come off anyway .

Cheers

thanks for the help guys but in the end i just took the inlet off, after all that dreading and procrastinating it would have taken less than an hour. I spent more time trying to get it back in the hole than it took to just do the inlet. But now I still have that crappy noise (nearly sounds like a crunchy diesel) How can i chech to see if the lifters are good, seeing as they are out again. I heard that when it's back together i can run the car with the rockers off at idle and then put my finger on the arms to see if that stops the sound (it sounds to full on to be one arm though) Also the lobes on the rockers that contact with the valves have some small cracks in them could this maybe be the cause of that anoying sound

G`day oops

you can check the base surface of the lifters by putting a straight edge across , hold up to the light , the straight edge should touch in the middle and you should see light on both outside edges .

There should be no cracks in the rocker arms anywhere .

There may be a wear mark in the middle on the hardened surface .

The rocker shaft wear can be found by pushing the rocker arm against/compressing the spring .

The wear will be on the bottom of the shaft , closest the head .

Top will probly look fine but the base may have wear marks/grooves/lips where the arm runs .

If you used composite gaskets for the rebuild which replaced tin/shim gaskets and didn`t remove enough material to compensate , this could be a cause .

Do you understand about lifter preload ?

Is your 3.9 a 10 or 14 bolt ( head bolts ) ?

Are your heads 10 or 14 bolt ( head bolts ) ?

Did you fit a new cam and did you run it in ?

cheers

Lifter pre load, can you please explain what that is. Im pretty sure it's a 14 bolt. Nah i didn't fit a new cam but we did fit a new timing chain. I dodn't think the gasket choice could be the cause of the noiseas we pulled the enigine apart to fix it. another question, my injectors are leaking where the hose fits onto the injector. I just got the injectors recoed, but lost the reciept. The guy couldn't have done to good a job. Can i use hose clamps there to seal em up or won't that work

The gasket choice is relevant because it can have bearing on lifter pre load because of the different thicknesses.

The base of the lifter is relevant because it can have bearing on lifter preload because if the lifter base is flat or concave the distance is greater .


Lifter preload is the distance in thous that the pushrod sits inside the lifter , when the lifter is on the back/base circle of the cam if too little it will rattle .

Cheers

I did the same thing with a lifter sticking to a pushrod when I pulled the pushrods.
I pulled the inlet manifold off. It was a good excuse to change the inlet manifold gasket as it leaked oil anyway.