lifters flying off during engine break-in...

[Talonman92]

Ok, I got a fresh stock rebuilt motor. My brother and I took it out after doing the initial break-in stuff, and after giving it one short shot of boost (15ish psi) 3 exhaust lifters came off and the engine died. At the time it seemed like the timing belt had just snapped. Once we got it home and took the valve cover off we found the lifters just lay'in in there.

My question is this... should we just put the lifters back on and continue the engine break-in with the wastegate held open? Or do i need to get new lifters? Not too sure why they came off really...

 

[drewvr4]

ive seen this when the timing was off or timing belt broke and the valves slapped the pistons

inspect the lifters if they seem fine use them

 

[DoyoFCT]

the last car I bought as a fixer upper / sell car, had a belt break or jump timing(previous owner must have re-installed the timing belt or re-did it) but during my tear down there were lifters that had poped out, and every rocker on the intake side had fallen off. So Im going to guess jumped timing. Is it just on one side? exhaust/intake? or both?

 

[Talonman92]

Ok I made a few technical errors in my first post...

It was late last night when I posted the original topic, so heres what the real deal is.

It was actually 3 exhaust rocker-arms that fell out of their place and were rattleing around under the valve cover. NOT lifters. the lifters are all still in their spot. Timing is fine there are no bent valves or anything like that, just 3 rocker-arms came off during the break-in procedure...

Sorry for the mis-information in the first post... no more posting at 2am

 

[Rex2342]

I've heard of this happening when the lifters are primed before they are installed. Did you soak the lifters in oil or do anything other than just install them? It's always a good idea to soak the lifters when they are new but you have to drain them completely of oil before you install them and fire up the engine.

 

[DoyoFCT]

strange, ive honestly never heard of this happening. i mean once the cam is installed there should be no clearance for them to come off, unless they were installed wrong and managed to stay on for a short period of time. do you have cams? or anything aftermarket in the head? I would re-install them, pull the fuel pump harness and do a compression test. make sure there are no dead cyls

 

[Talonman92]

I agree it is a strange problem. I think the lash adjusters that the 3 rocker arms sit on were siezed. We will do some more troubleshooting to see if there are any dead cylinders. The timing belt is still very intact and everything looks great under the valve cover just 3 exhaust rocker arms fell off.