Collapsed lifters when storing for winter?
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,164
Likes: 71
From: MA
Collapsed lifters when storing for winter?
It is getting close to the time for storing my vette over the winter. My past experience with winter storages hasn’t been good. I have stored two other cars (a Toyota Camry and Chrysler Concord), both of which had collapsed hydraulic lifters after three months of storage. I don’t think that this is an uncommon problem. Upon starting both cars they ran very rough and as you can imagine made terrible valve clashing noises. After several hours the lifters did reinflate, but I am sure that I caused some engine damage. My solution has been to start the cars once a week and run them for about 20 minutes. I would rather avoid doing this when I store my vette for the winter.
Has anyone encountered this when storing their vette? Do I have to worry about this?
Has anyone encountered this when storing their vette? Do I have to worry about this?
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 3,558
Likes: 2
From: Cape Coral FL
Hmmm... Good question. I'd like to hear about others' experience. I just did a h/c swap and have high seat pressure springs. Patriot Gold duals to be exact. I suppose I could pull the valve covers and take out the pushrods...
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 3,879
Likes: 3
From: Hobart, WI
Have stored for 3 years and never a lifter problem but it could not hurt to loosen rockers to release spring and lifter pressure. Especially with strong aftermarket springs.
Watch out for mice and other critters.
Watch out for mice and other critters.
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,164
Likes: 71
From: MA
Here is something I found on the web about this:
Any Hydraulic lifter will leak down sooner or later, if it is stopped in a position such that the full 200# or so of valve spring pressure is pushing it down. After all, this is just two cylindrical, very well fitted and finished pieces of metal in very close proximity that are asked to hold back the pressure of maybe 1000 PSI! What I mean to point out is that there is no flexible lip or other compliant material to make the seal absolute.
When the lifters are new and perfect, and everything is spotless clean in the engine, they will hold up for weeks. As the lifters wear with use (wear occurs entirely on startup, because after the oil is circulating, they run in a bath of oil), they will begin to leak down faster and faster, and changing oil viscosity will only have a slight effect on how fast they leak down.
As I mentioned, this happens - and for me twice!
I would like to hear from others who store their cars over the winter.
Any Hydraulic lifter will leak down sooner or later, if it is stopped in a position such that the full 200# or so of valve spring pressure is pushing it down. After all, this is just two cylindrical, very well fitted and finished pieces of metal in very close proximity that are asked to hold back the pressure of maybe 1000 PSI! What I mean to point out is that there is no flexible lip or other compliant material to make the seal absolute.
When the lifters are new and perfect, and everything is spotless clean in the engine, they will hold up for weeks. As the lifters wear with use (wear occurs entirely on startup, because after the oil is circulating, they run in a bath of oil), they will begin to leak down faster and faster, and changing oil viscosity will only have a slight effect on how fast they leak down.
As I mentioned, this happens - and for me twice!
I would like to hear from others who store their cars over the winter.
