Disassemble Clean Roller Lifters, for L31 Vortec SBC

[RanchWelder]

Cleaning your roller lifters can go a long way to saving money on a rebuilt Roller Engine.

First carefully remove the clips with a pick or small screw driver.
You can tap the internals out onto a steel or wooden table.
There may be a line of oil residue, that fights the piston and spring from coming out easily. Just be patient and tap repeatedly, but not so hard as to damage anything.

If you get maround a minute of taps, try using an air compressor and a quality air nozzle to force the piston and spring out, with a blast of air throught the lifter.

Unless there's a bad groove worn into the barrel, they will eventually come out, after you break the hydro-lock from the oil remaining inside the barrel.

Then polish everything with a green or blue scrubber pad.

You'll notice the ridge is now gone.
After re-assembly, the piston will have double the movement of a used lifter.
Look for compressed or broken springs.
Verify the wheel on the rollers has no slop or bearing wear.
More than .004"play, means the bushing or needles are shot.

The rusted or worn outer barrels should be discarded.

Here's a few pictures:

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[RanchWelder]

When it's time to re-assemble each clean dry piston, spring, plunger and stainless cap, make use of a hex nut driver, so you can squeeze the piston, spring assembly, with a spring clamp.

You might want to have a helper if your clamp does not release easily. It might throw parts around the first few times.

Be prepared to see things go flying, till you get the hang of it.

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Once you get full compression, you can carefully insert the spring clip.

I like to use a pick and force the clip into the inner groove, in ever direction. If you have any crud in the groove, your spring will release inside your engine, so clean the grooves out properly.

Air pressure is your friend.

You can miss the small stainless pressure baffle, so count all your pieces and make certain every lifter gets the check valve stainless circle.

I tried to reassemble each unit with the same parts that came out, one at a time. If you see spring wear or a bad piston, you should be able to use parts from another barrel, so long as the unit operates smoothly, after cleaning and rebuild.

Use air burst in the needles, but hold the roller from going high RPM. The non-oiled bearings should not spin at high speed, without lubrication. Cleaning the needles carefully with air is important, so fresh clean oil can seep into the fresh lifter and pressurize the pistons, during pre-oiling.

An oil pressure tool, will be handy so the distributor and oil pump can be pressurized before start up.

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CP8DKC/

I read the reviews and bought this version.
It required flipping the larger chunk and grinding a chamfer, so it seals better and primes properly.

A lot of the newer versions are sub-standard and do not seal inside the oil galleys.

Make certain your valve covers are off when you prime, so you can verify oil coming out of every push rod on both cylinder heads.

Summit and other websites, do not recommend pre-oiling your rebuilt lifters.

A Hydro-lock can occur inside the pistons, if the oil pressure does not happen naturally from engine rotation and pre-priming.

I'm sure there are guys who have pre-oiled and get away with it, however Summit has documented it would be better off not performed, for best results on hydraulic lifters.

YMMV

 

[CalSgt]

Great write up!

I went through this when I did the L31 for the Squircle. Getting them apart with the oil varnish groove is a PIA, but they go right back together once it’s cleaned out