Hydraulic lifters Testing

Problems with hydraulic lifters is usually a ticking noise coming from the engine.
A lot usually diagnose a cam lobe causing the problem but its the lifter ticking due to dirty oil.
Strip the lifter and squeeze the old oil out as best you can.
then fill the lifter with fresh oil.
The ticking noise is common on the command single cylinder engine thats about 16 hp fitted to the dixon 4516 ztr.
Used to get it alot on car engines aswell.
 
pugaltitude said:
Problems with hydraulic lifters is usually a ticking noise coming from the engine.
A lot usually diagnose a cam lobe causing the problem but its the lifter ticking due to dirty oil.
Strip the lifter and squeeze the old oil out as best you can.
then fill the lifter with fresh oil.
The ticking noise is common on the command single cylinder engine thats about 16 hp fitted to the dixon 4516 ztr.
Used to get it alot on car engines aswell.
Click to expand...

Great tip pugaltitude.... Thanks.
 
neo7, well on line nothing specific on kohler hydraulic lifters, but lots on the basic device. Very ingenious and MACHINED INTERNALLY TO .0002" which is smaller than oil filter screening! The message is that dirt , moisture, varnish kills h-lifters or makes 'em sick. Some other stuff you probably know.

don't swap them round
best not to replace unless cam is replaced
you can replace the inner piston if the outer is ok ( mated to the engine bore) if part is avail.
you should be able to disassemble and clean lifters of varnish/debris
changing valve length (as in grinding ) skimming head, new valve seats, new pushrods, may require new preload adj on lifters
plenty of car and aftermarket basics online on how to set preload for adj and non adj valve rockers

Let me know if you are interested in more if this forum cannot give you specifics for your engine
 
motoman said:
don't swap them round
Click to expand...
I wish I knew this before I took two of them out the other day :ashamed:

One was inlet the other was exhaust.... are the two lifter different in any way?....Any signs that might tell me which one was which?

Thanks Motorman.:thumbsup:

All the best.
Neo
 
Neo7 said:
I wish I knew this before I took two of them out the other day :ashamed:

One was inlet the other was exhaust.... are the two lifter different in any way?....Any signs that might tell me which one was which?

Thanks Motorman.:thumbsup:

All the best.
Neo
Click to expand...

Looking at various makes the ex and in lifters look alike. I believe the caution of interchanging is just to keep run-in parts together.
Kohler has a great color diagram of their basic lifter on their site, but the operation and maintenance is missing. If you need to identify which is which look at the OD of the lifter for marks and try to find the same marks on the lifter bore(s).
 
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