I just replaced the 32 year old cracked oil seals on my valves. I'm ready to put the cylinder head, oil pan, and rocker assembly back together. A mechanic friend suggested I pull the lifters and check them first. Any thoughts? The engine has 80,000 miles and has not run since 1980. Rear main seals are okay. I cannot figure out how to remove the lifters. How do you get to them?

There is really nothing to 'check' on these lifters. The are solid slugs of metal. Your mechanic friend is probably thinking of hydraulic lifters.

If you were to remove them you would do so from the top of the engine (head on or head off on your '73, starting with the '75 "small spark plug" heads, you have to remove the head to get at the lifters) and simply lift them out with a magnetic pickup tool. Keep track of which lifter came from which bore and put them back in the same place. But, here again: Nothin' really to check, so you may as well leave them alone.

One thing you might want to do is pull the pushrods (just lift them out), clean them, and roll each one along a piece of good plate glass to check for bending.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

If I was going to be in there anyway, I'd pull and do two things with 'em. First, clean them, and then check to make sure the face that rides on the cam has a slight "crown" to it, rather than being flat or concave. Also check to make sure they're not galled or pitted. Just make sure to oil them up good before you put 'em back in.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Dan, you say there is "nothing really to check". My service manual says to check the pushrods on a sheet of glass as you stated, and also to verify there is a crown on the end of the tappet and it is not flat or concave or pitted. I have the cylinder head off now. Should I pull the lifters or leave them alone? Are they easily withdrawn from the block?

I don't figure there's any especial reason to worry about tappet wear on an engine with only 80k miles on it. You can check 'em if you want, but if the engine were mine, I'd spend my time checking the timing chain and cam sprocket for wear, instead...!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

If they're clean and properly lubed, they're a piece of cake to get out. If they have all sorts of nasty sludge build-up in the center grooove (likely, especially after sitting that long), they can be a pain. I have a large pair of external snap ring pliers that have little "pads" on each point that work perfect to grab hold of the inside and pull them out. There's also a specialty tool to pull them, but fortunately, I've never had need for it. Whatever you do, don't try to take a pair of pliers and grab hold of the outside; you don't wanna scratch the area that rides against the block.

If you're pressed for time, I agree w/ Dan; just leave 'em and go with it. If you're more concerned w/ crossing every 'T' and dotting every 'I' though, I'd pull 'em. I mean you've got nothin to lose but time.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Well, er, that might depend. If you're getting butter fingered like me and you have several of them out at once, you could drop one or more and get them mixed up.

I use one rule of thumb among others. If you can't get them out they probably need to come out and if they act like they want to slide out nicely and smoothly with a mag tool they probably don't need to. Go figure.

If you're afraid of dropping them or otherwise getting them out of order, set the lifters individually into an egg carton, as soon as you remove them.
You could also stab a pencil horizontally through two adjoining compartments and use that as a place to stow the push rods with their associated lifter. Six compartments per row on an egg carton is ideal for a slant six.

Jerry

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There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

Or only take one out at a time, look to see how wonderful it is and put it back

The egg carton is very efficient, I know. I laid something down too close to one (right on th edge of it) and it very efficiently placed them all on the floor at once.

just get a fine point Sharpie and mark each lifter when you remove and clean it.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.