Replacing valve lifter without removing head on 7.4 454 vortec engine
December 29th, 2016, 6:07 PM
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Replacing valve lifter without removing head on 7.4 454 vortec engine
I thought I'd share my experience on replacing the bad valve lifter. I started getting a loud lifter clack on my 1999 Suburban K2500. Using a mechanic stethoscope I determine the sound was coming from the passenger side. I've never done one before so did some searching.
I found a youtube video that showed I could remove them by just pulling them out (but it wasn't for this engine). Other information said I would need to remove the head or lower intake manifold to get to them. I removed the upper intake manifold bolts and lifted the manifold up a couple of inches just enough to allow removing the valve cover on the passenger side. I only disconnected a couple of things to allow the manifold to lift up since I wasn't taking it completly off. It looks like the driver side cover can be removed without lifting the manifold. With the valve cover removed I discovered that the problem valve was the 4th from the front. It had almost a half inch of gap under the rocker arm when the valve was down.
Here is a video showing the clacking sound
This valve lifter was the only one that had an access hole where I could look down and see the lifter so I felt lucky. I could see that the clip and plate in the top of the lifter was sideways and beside the rod instead of under it. I went to NAPA and bought a lifter removal tool. When Trying to pull it out it would only move up and down an inch or and wouldn't come out. (so I pulled harder, my mistake) It finally popped up but I then discovered it had a retainer guide on top that went over the two valves to keep the lifter pointed in one direction so that the roller on the bottom would line up with the cam. This guide is shaped like a pair of eyeglasses (similar image https://static.summitracing.com/glob...1001_SN_xl.jpg) and is held down with a springy metal piece in the center that is a spider assembly holding down all of the retainers. When I pulled hard I bent the spring metal and straightened out the curved end. (see photo above showing bent spider arm) Crap. Using long needle nose and stiff wire I was able to lift this up and slide the guide out and remove it. I had to 1st remove the 2nd rocker arm and rod so that both rods going through the retainer were removed. After removing the retainer, the lifter easily pulled right out. I oiled up the new lifter and put it into the hole making sure the direction was correct and slipped the retainer back in under the clip. It took a while but I was able to recurve the end of the spider assembly spring arm so that it was again tight holding down the retainer (phewww..) . Reinstalled the two rods and rocker arms, put everything back together and no more clacking. I think if this had been any other lifter I wouldn't have been able to replace it this way. Maybe the one next to it could have been pulled but it wasn't easily visible. I did this all in an afternoon. This would probably have cost quite a bit to be done by a shop. I would be interested to know if anyone else has experience with replacing lifters and if they have done it this way.
This video shows removal of lifters when both the upper and lower intake manifold is removed. This 454 looks like it has a different manifold than the vortec but the valves are the same as mine and shows a clear picture of the spider retainer and valve guides.
Last edited by Don Kleppinger; December 29th, 2016 at 8:03 PM.
