petrock

I’ve had the motor out of the wifey’s ’98 3.8L Mustang (155k miles) for about a month as I’ve been fixing various leaks and anything else I find along the way. Well now I’m onto replacing the valve stem seals and noticed that when both exhaust & intake valves are closed I can fairly easily rotate a couple roller rockers from side to side so the rocker is off the valve. Is this normal with these motors? On other engines I’ve rebuilt (with flat lifters and adjustable rockers) the rockers were fairly solid once fully torqued down. Roller lifters & non-adjustable rockers are new to me.

I know this motor does not have adjustable roller rockers, so there is no lash adjustment. Sweet, I hate adjusting valves. I’ve removed the roller rockers and retorqued them to make sure they just weren’t loose. It didn’t make a difference.

On a couple roller rockers I can press on the rocker above the push rod and compress the lifter about 1/8” and they’re kind of spongy. Others barely move, if at all. I’m not sure if the movement is indicative of a bad lifter or not since the motor has been sitting on an engine stand for almost a month with no oil in the motor. Maybe the lifter bled down all the way? I’m not sure how to properly test/inspect roller lifters.

Any ideas? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks...

Stevo86

If you've got it out already I would probably replace them anyway.

petrock

Thanks for the reply. Money is a little tight. With flat lifters, I know you have to replace the camshaft when replacing the lifters. Do you have to replace the camshaft when replacing roller lifters too? Or can I reuse it?

Stevo86

I don't think so since there is far less wear on a roller cam.

petrock

$120 + shipping for a new set of lifters (rockauto.com) isn’t horrible, but if I could save the money...... I’ve cleaned lifters before with success. I think I’ll try cleaning these roller lifters, submerge them in oil and try to manually pump them up. If one doesn't hold pressure then its clearly bad and I’ll replace them all. Otherwise, I’ll give them a second chance.

I’ve tried searching around and some sites say the cam should be replaced with the lifters and some don’t. I tried searching this forum with no luck. There is a little bit of wear on the cam, where the lifter roller comes in contact with the cam. I can see the track where the roller rolls. However, I can’t feel any grooves or marks or anything like that when I run my fingernail over the cam lobes. No pitting or gouges.

What say the forum? Thanks...