Well shes done for the season! Last night driving some where, my lifter tick that i have had since i bought the car escalated and was making the car rather rough to run. I barely got the car home, i couldnt press the gas to go past 40 or else the gas pedal would feel rather bad, so i kept it slow and nursed it to its final resting place in my garage!!!! I just had time today to go and take the valve cover off to look for broken valve train parts, didnt see anything but the driver side, closest to the front of the car rocker was rather loose and i decided that was the problem, so i took that plate of rockers off, (the front 2 pairs) and only one of the push rods was bent a little, and the one lifter was completley collapsed causing the gap between the rocker and valve (causing the tick). So i installed everything back on and had my friend just turn over the car....
Well haha one of the pushrods fell down into the hole, and when i took the sets of rockers off again i had severley bent all the push rods... oops Luckily the push rod in the hole isnt under any pressure, so that means nothing is jammed, but i cant get it out, have to take the head off. But wtf, i thought i installed those damned pushrods back in ok...is there some freakin science to it?! It really pissed me off!!!! Im too flustered right now to have put much detail into this post, but perhaps some of you could help me out by inquiring the things i did to cause this, because i have no idea what i did, or how much damage i have done. :crying:
you dont have to pull the heads just the intake manifold and from in there you can pull teh push rods and lifters put in new lifters and new rods adjust them right and put it all back together
I'm thinking I have a collapsed lifter in my 78. It shouldn't be too tough to fix with some new lifters and a couple pushrods, I'll be working on mine later today, good luck with yours.
You need to chill out and take your time.
As previous post mentioned, you need to remove the intake manifold. This is not very difficult, but you need to proceed carefully and slowly. If you can find a cadillac shop manual, great. Otherwise a Haynes or Chilton manual will do. It's been awhile so I don't remember the torque sequence or the ft/lbs for the bolts.
You do not need to disconnect the freon lines to your a/c compressor. Unbolt it and move it out of the way. In the past I supported it on a piece of plywood that sat on the braces and fender well. I recommend you remove the carb before removing the intake manifold. Stock intakes are made of cast iron and are rather heavy. I've done it myself, but two people will make life easier.
Once you get the manifold off, you will fully understand how the valve system works. The old test for push rods is to roll them on a piece of glass. If you hear ticking while rolling, you know it's bent. The rods must be perfectly straight. Due to age, I suggest you replace all 16 pushrods. Same goes for the lifters and rockers. Never install a bent pushrod, even if the bend is very small.
Once a pushrod develops a slight bend it will continue to bend to the point where it looses contact with the top of the lifter or rocker. At that point, it's history. Sometimes the lifter will pop out of its bore once the pushrod is gone.
everyone keeps talking like they are only going to change out lifters and rods w/o replacing the cam. This is a bad idea. :tisk: the lifters wear together with the lobes on the cam. And in the early 80's and late 70's GM made a bunch of bad cams even w/o doing any work with the lifters the lobes would break off. And if you put new lifters in the engine with the old cam it is almost a given that the lobe will break off. And it isn't just the fact that it is an old stock cam either i'vee seen it hapen on a after market race cam in a big block chevy. just thought i'd put my 2cents in.
everyone keeps talking like they are only going to change out lifters and rods w/o replacing the cam. This is a bad idea. :tisk: the lifters wear together with the lobes on the cam. And in the early 80's and late 70's GM made a bunch of bad cams even w/o doing any work with the lifters the lobes would break off. And if you put new lifters in the engine with the old cam it is almost a given that the lobe will break off. And it isn't just the fact that it is an old stock cam either i'vee seen it hapen on a after market race cam in a big block chevy. just thought i'd put my 2cents in.
Well that wasnt my plan, im going to buy one of the cams off MTS and have them select everything else accordingly, im looking at a completley new valve train this winter. I need something to put up with my heavy foot. :rolleyes2
If your going to drive the car you dont need a valvetrain upgrage you just need to replace the cam lifters and springs/retainers/locks/seals
and for any performance cam you will need to have the tops of the guides machined down for retainer clearance
when you order a cam make sure to order a custom one that is a single pattern instead of a dual otherwise your power will be going right out the exhaust...just the facts :thumbsup:
when you order a cam make sure to order a custom one that is a single pattern instead of a dual otherwise your power will be going right out the exhaust...just the facts :thumbsup:
The so called performance camshafts sold by vendors other than myself are just grinds the cam companies came up with because the people selling them didnt know what they wanted.
Keep in mind I am also in this business and i do things a little different
dual pattern camshafts are for engines with weak exhaust ports and or poorly designed combustion chambers(and a bunch of other things)
something that the cadillac does not have even in bone stock form.
for a basically stock engine youll want a camshaft in the 218-224@.050 range and a 112-114 Deg lobe separation.
this is what works and how we do things track and street tested.
good luck with your project
the ex port on the caddy is the same as any other wedge head and with portwork flows 70 to 80 % of the intake .... so single pattern cams work well......... MTS has been doing this for a long time and has some good cams for a driver most of the time you are looking at a smaller cam with little overlap on a 110 lc which means like 218 at .050 to help the low end power which is just what he has .....
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