So, I've got my engine apart and pulled the lifters and rockers to hopefully solve the cold start ticking I have. I ordered all new lifters and the revised rocker arms. Out of the 16 new lifters 10 of them are too stiff to push in by hand but the nipple rotates freely. 6 of them can be pushed in by hand and also rotate freely. It's like they have 2 different spring rates. All the old lifters are stiff as well. No play in them and rotate freely. Are the 6 that I can manually compress bad? They are all the same part number. At this point I figured at least one of the old lifters would have some slop in them to cause the ticking on cold start but none of them do. Should I just put the old ones back in with the updated rockers or are they all supposed to be able to be compressed by hand like the 6? I want to get this done and if I need to have the parts store order in more lifters I need to know ASAP. Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

They should have some play or springiness when you push down on them. This is what allows them to adjust on the fly. It's the frozen ones you have to watch out for. Once they freeze, they can throw the rocker arm. I wouldn't put old ones back in. You're there, so change them.

Take the ones that wont budge back to the store and exchange them for ones that you can push on a bit. What brand did u get?

 

The only brand I could get was sealed power.

So the store sold me 10 bad lifters you think? I'll try to see if they are stiff or frozen with a big pair of pliers. The 6 that are soft are REALLY soft. One finger compress kind of soft.

 

So, I just checked what I have. Apparently I wrote up the first message wrong. I have 10 new ones I can compress with my hand. 6 that won't compress even with a 12" pair of channel locks as extra leverage. All 16 of my old lifters are the same. They do not compress at all.

So if it's not supposed to be that stiff why is it OK for people to replace these with solid lifters?

I just really do not want to have to do this again. That's why I'm asking. I would hate to get it all back together and have it be worse.

 

Solid lifters are set to a precise height. Hydraulic lifters have a bit of variance but the spring and engine oil keeps them in contact with the rocker at all times. When hydraulic lifters freeze, they are usually going to freeze at a position that is lower than intended, so the gap will cause insufficient pressure (or none at all, depending on cam lobe position) on the rocker and you have ejection. The cold start tapping is audible progressive failure, which will eventually lead to ejection. It may take years, or weeks....

I'm not guessing... I'm talking from experience here. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ine-issue.html

Had a rocker eject on #5 cylinder. The bad lifter was frozen stiff and I couldn't budge it with channel locks either. Luckily there was no damage. I had that cold start tic/diesel rattle just like you did. I had purchased everything for replacing the lifters months prior, but didn't get around to it in time and the lifter ejected. So take my advice and replace them before that happens. Furthermore, you should also replace your valve stem seals while you're there. This will prevent you losing oil out the exhaust, if that isn't already taking place.

I also used sealed power lifters.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ml#post3458868



Quoting myself here from my first link....
""

The effect of new stem seals...
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...tem-seals.html

 

Thanks for all the info. I appreciate it.

Sealed power has some QC issues to resolve. I brought back the 6 bad lifters and checked the 15 they had in stock. ALL of them were stuck. They were able to get in 18 more this afternoon. Out of the 18 only 1 was stuck. That's 22 bad out of 51. 43% failure rate. At this point I have little faith that these will last but seeing as I got about 80k before replacement with the stock ones and another 80k with the first set of sealed power lifters I figure they will outlast me having the vehicle.

I have 16 slightly squishy lifters soaking in oil now. I'm not going to deal with the valve seals. I do not have the tools to do that. As far as I know I'm not burning any oil. At least the plugs don't show any signs of fouling. I am hoping this solves the issue. Between new lifters and the new style rockers I should be good for a while. Provided of course I can get it back together without breaking anything.

 

See my link on the Sealed Power lifters. Notice that the boxes in pics say made In USA? Well I refused all the ones made in China and they had quite a few mixed in. Also notice they had two different designs for the same part number. Silver crimped caps vs black. I ended up with one silver cap in the bunch. All the rest were black....newer design.

 

So, all lifters changed. New rockers installed. Start truck and it sounds horrible for the first few seconds then quiets down. A few minutes later and I now have a persistent valve tick on passenger side. Pull it apart again and checked the lifters. They are frozen. They were good before and now they are all locked up? WTF is going on? I'm about ready to burn this thing to the ground. I put it back together. I'm at the point where if it blows up I just don't care anymore. I am so tired of this thing. I thought about getting another set of OEM lifters but I dread pulling the drivers side cover again.

Seriously, Does anyone make parts anymore that are not complete junk? Anyone know who makes the OEM lifters for dodge? All I've ever seen are sealed power or OEM available. I assume sealed power makes them for dodge.

 

I found Melling, ultra-power, enginetech and ajusa also make them apparently. Anyone have input on these brands?

 

Remember, they are going to stiffen up considerably after they prime with oil, so I doubt they are all frozen as you say. If they truly froze, you'd be throwing a bunch of rocker arms. Federal Mogul is who makes Sealed Power products. Not sure who is the OEM.