stevensa

After pulling the heads off my LS6 looking for a valvetrain tick, I discovered that I had a broken lifter on the #6 cylinder. The needle bearings stayed in the lifter, but the pin for the roller was sliding back and forth into the lifter bore and machined a groove in the bore.

What are my options here? The OD of the lifter is nice and smooth and other lifters move in the bore smoothly and fit well. I am not aware of anything that I can do to repair this. Do I just install a new lifter and roll with it?

Thanks in advance.

froggy47

VGLNTE1

i would install a new one and forget it. its nothing you can really fix.

JDIllon

You can bore and sleeve the lifter bores. But from what you said, I would probably run it. I had the lifter pins move side to side and do the same thing. They were only slight marks, so I left them and they are fine. Make sure to check all of the others. I assume you are going to replace all of the lifters?? If one pin is loose, there may be others. I tapped all of them with a punch and many of them were loose. It looks like there is a piece broken off of the lifter?? If so did you find the piece?? JD

stevensa

JD, there is a piece broken off the lifter. I have not found it yet. I'm going to look some more, but it is most likely going to be impossible to find without completely taking apart the engine. Hopefully it is down in the oil pan out of the way.

Supercharged111

Isn't the batwing pan a 2 piece with the 2nd piece being easy to remove? If it didn't already come out during an oil change, I imagine you'd find it down there without much asspain.

Solofast

If it's on the front or rear (ie towards the front or rear of the block) of the lifter bore it isn't going to be an issue. The thrust loads are primarily on the faces that are perpendicular to the cam so there isn't much load on that face anyway. Should be fine.

sperkins

I raced for over 2 years with half a pushrod down in the oil pan.

RAFTRACER

Sleeve the lifter bore as said above...

....all of our roadrace oriented builds, we sleeve all lifter bores to tighten up the clearances and restrict the oiling of the lifters to reduce the internal "bleed" of oil flow and resultant pressure loss when hot.

hklvette

The batwing is a two-piece pan, but unless the metal pieces are small enough to fit through the drain passages into the sump, it won't be coming out easily.

davidfarmer

what year engine is this, and what does the lifter guide look like? Curious if you had one of the defective guides....

stevensa

2002 LS6, OEM lifters/trays. #1 stamped tray had the failed lifter. They were a bit loose, but seemed to be in decent condition.