Most everyone who has at least looked at rebuilding a Magnum V8 knows the roller lifters should go into the bore with the side hole facing up. This is to avoid "bleed down" of oil inside the lifter when at rest (to my understanding).

Well, after fully rebuilding a Magnum 5.9 , it has run excellent for upwards of 10k odd miles - except for the fact that immediately from the get-go I got a pronounced ticking sound coming from what I believed to be the #1 exhaust valve area. Definitely coming from the forward drivers side corner of the motor. I have the common symptom of it being very pronounced at startup and then soften after a few seconds with full oil pressure. It would also get somewhat louder when the engine was very hot (long hill climb in hot weather) but never fully goes away. I pulled off the valve cover off to watch the rockers at idle and it was pumping oil up ALL of the pushrods - so the lifters were all holding at least some hydraulic pressure. These are all brand new Melling roller lifters installed at rebuild time.

Sounds straightforward enough - probably just a collapsed lifter right?

Well, yesterday I finally had enough and tore off the top end of the motor to look at the odd side lifters. (Wow, this is a lot of work to just replace a lifter. I had to pull the driver side head in addition to the intake manifold because with the head gasket I was using [Felpro], there was not enough vertical clearance to remove the lifter out of the bore. FSM says I only need to pull the intake manifold but I could not get the lifters out with the head still on. Maybe when I reinstall the head and [new] gasket, I'll take a pic to illustrate. That was a surprise to me.) But I digress ...

The first four lifters in the forward corner of the block - #1 exhaust, #1 intake, #3 intake, #3 exhaust - all looked perfect. I tore them all apart and they were clean and solid. No crushed springs, missing *****, clips, etc. What I DID NOT do at the time I pulled them is note their orientation; I subsequently checked all the other lifters and all were installed correctly. I also inspected the pushrods (straight as an arrow), rockers (good) and valves (all look solid and seated well - and held water in the water test).

So, why the ticking? My theory is that the #1 exhaust or #1 intake lifter was installed upside down. Does that hold water in this case? Would I get a lifter tick that [mostly] goes away with oil pressure?

 

It's possible, or, maybe just a bum lifter new out of the box. What brand lifters did you get?

 

Melling JB-2225

 

Hhhmmm..... Usually good parts..... Swapping them is an exercise though...... Did you have any machine work done on the block during the refresh?

 

How do you install a roller lifter upside down? When I did my cam I used mopar performance lifters. 1 didn't have the spot for the tie bar machined and I have one that bleeds down after a day and ticks on start up. Quality is not what it used to be.

 

Just it hot tanked and magnafluxed - all good.

I bore gauged the lifter bores and they were in spec.

 

By that I meant the oil inlet hole on the side of the lifter was pointing down (into the sump) by mistake instead of upwards (to the intake manifold). The dogbones secure the lifters from rotating and keeps the roller aligned on the cam. The FSM says the oil holes should be pointing up - but the $64M question is: What are the consequences of a lifter installed as such...

 

Where is the oil gallery in relation to the hole. Theoretically, there is a check valve in the lifters that should keep them from just draining out.... But, lots o stuff can cause a 'lifter' tick..... Bent pushrod, loose rocker bolt, etc. One of the reasons I like the chevy style rockers MUCH better. Having an ADJUSTABLE valve train makes life much easier, even though it makes setup a bit more involved.....

 

oil supply is closest to the cylinder (down) but the manual says to install the lifter with the hole up. The lifter will get oil either way. The only thing i can think of is it will bleed out any air faster with the hole up. Did you push down each lifter to see if any went down more than the others(mainly the one in question)? You may want to take that lifter apart and see what it looks like. None adjustable valve train is for the most part is fool proof, Unlike adjustable.

 

Make something 'foolproof', and you will find a better fool.