Lifter Bore Honing

[excobraguy]

My new engine has a bad lifter tapping, so bad I took the intake off and swapped the lifters thinking the new ones might be gunked up with packing grease. This is a Revolution X roller cam by the way.

When I pulled the lifters I noticed that #6 intake would go down about 90% off the way and then "stick". You could always push it the rest of the way down with a little pressure. After putting in the new lifters I have the exact same tapping noise as before, it is coming from #6 again. Here is my question....is it possible to ball hone a lifter bore with the engine installed??? It has to be a very fine amount to be removed that is making the lifter stick. Also, is it possible that an overbored lifter bore can cause the lifter to slide "sideways" and stick? I need help on this one for sure!!!!! Looking for all helpful input.............thanks guys. :smile:

Oh, one other thing.....would driving it like this cause the lifter to slap against the cam and beat the cam lobe down?????

 

[excobraguy]

Somone's bound to have some input on this......no????? Maybe to get a response I should title it "Grand National in FF4"......

 

[SPOOLN]

There might be something wrong with the cam lobe, might be misground causing the lifter to sink to far in the lifter bore. Use a dial indicator to see what the highest lift is on the lobe and compare.

 

[excobraguy]

There might be something wrong with the cam lobe, might be misground causing the lifter to sink to far in the lifter bore. Use a dial indicator to see what the highest lift is on the lobe and compare.

Cam lobes are fine........pretty confident of this. Need input on lifter honing and whether or not it can be done with the engine in the car........not sure if a ball hone will go down through the pushrod area into the lifter bore.

 

[Alky V6]

There's no way to catch all the honing grit. Don't do it. Lifter to bore clearance should be .0015 to .0022. It would be far easier to polish the body of the lifter to a smaller OD.

 

[excobraguy]

There's no way to catch all the honing grit. Don't do it. Lifter to bore clearance should be .0015 to .0022. It would be far easier to polish the body of the lifter to a smaller OD.

I did this to the new lifter before putting it back in. I thought I had it sliding up and down pretty good but it still caught sometimes. I hate the thought of tearing it back down again!!!!!!!! Any ideas on the best way to polish the lifter??????? It's a roller lifter and the damn tie bar gets in the way!

 

[Chuck Leeper]

I use the GOODSON burnishing ball on a home made slide hammer, on all engines I do.
it will size the bore to an exact dia, and put a glass slick finish on it. You will have to pull the cam out to do this. I'd do all 12 bores while it's apart. You could probably do it without a disassembly, as the ball compresses the sides of the bore vs cutting material out as with a hone...
Oil soaked paper towels under the bores, and a good brake clean washdown after the process should clean things up. An oil/filter change after reassembly is also always a good idea.

 

[49-blues]

is the .845" ball the correct on to use on our motors?