Real Fiero Tech

One of my lifters seems to have decided it was tired of working rather suddenly today. Drove my car to work no problems, fired it up to move it later on and I get nasty lifter tick. I believe it is in fact the lifter, engine still runs fine but has odd note in exhaust, and the ticking subsided a bit as it warmed up. Sounds to be at the number 1 cylinder.

Do I have any options besides pulling it apart and replacing the lifters? Any chance of reviving it at least for a little while?

Find a nice 3.4 long block...

I dunno what to do for you, when my buddy got a 2.8 with a bad lifter we just did the whole set. What viscosity oil do you use? Thicker may subdue it a bit.

I'm actually using Royal Purple 5w30, I've been using it for awhile now. Hopefully it hasn't caused my problems.

I've been told synthetic oil can free up sludge and move it around your motor, I dont know if thats true, or if that could make a lifter fail. I run synthetic with no issues on higher miled cars. I really dont think thick oil is the right fix, I was just remembering my pep boys days when people would tell me 20w50 stopped any leak and quieted any noise.

lol, I put 20w50 in my old Impala 350 once, just two quarts of that stuff out of five total made it hard to start the engine.

Am I running the risk of any serious damage by driving for a couple days? 6 day work week this week for inventory, they'd be pissed if I called out. If I'm incredibly lucky we have lifters for this thing in stock.

How bad a job is replacing the lifters on the 2.8 anyway?

you need to pull all the intakes and drain the coolant. AFter that it should be pretty straight forward. You will need to get a full intake gasket kit. Felpro #93020

valve covers will also need to come off, but those gaskets are probably reusable.

a collapsed lifter is often due to crud getting the check ball stuck open. It causes the lifter to bleed down w/o oil pressure. Change to a thinner synthetic. Maybe try running a motor flush if you want to chance it.

whipped wrote:a collapsed lifter is often due to crud getting the check ball stuck open. It causes the lifter to bleed down w/o oil pressure. Change to a thinner synthetic. Maybe try running a motor flush if you want to chance it.

I'm already running 5W30 Royal Purple synthetic, can't really go thinner. With the motor flush, am I risking fucking myself over there? I don't want to maybe destroy the engine to avoid pulling the lifters out. If changing them is what I have to do then I'll just do it.

I've heard mixed opinions about swapping lifters without doing the cam, any input there? Swapping the cam would cost me quite a bit more time and money, but I don't want to do the job twice. My engine currently has 121k miles on what I assume is original internals.

Xanth wrote:
I'm already running 5W30 Royal Purple synthetic, can't really go thinner. With the motor flush, am I risking fucking myself over there? I don't want to maybe destroy the engine to avoid pulling the lifters out. If changing them is what I have to do then I'll just do it.

I've heard mixed opinions about swapping lifters without doing the cam, any input there? Swapping the cam would cost me quite a bit more time and money, but I don't want to do the job twice. My engine currently has 121k miles on what I assume is original internals.

I swapped out lifters without doing a cam swap. It went fine. My car was run on synthetic it's whole life and the cae had very little wear even at 100k miles. You should be fine.

I've got L44 intake manifold gaskets kicking around, just the pair that go between the head and intake. I am assuming you'll do the whole kit but lemme know, you can have these.

2nd the no need for new cam. My aluminum motor has all new lifters (napa had them in stock) and reused a stock 2.8 cam (I know I know). To swap the cam you will have to pull the motor.

edit, my problem was a bent pushrod, not bad lifter. I have a spare set of pushrods sitting around if you want them.

Xanth wrote: I'm already running 5W30 Royal Purple synthetic, can't really go thinner. With the motor flush, am I risking fucking myself over there? I don't want to maybe destroy the engine to avoid pulling the lifters out. If changing them is what I have to do then I'll just do it.

Don't put any load on the engine and it'll be fine.

I'm all about being lazy...

Okay, I'm now actually looking at cam kits. Anyone use the FieroStore performance Kit?


85-88 V6 COMP-CAMS PERFORMANCE CAM KIT (260H)
Lift @ valve - Intake & Exhaust - 440 Duration - Intake - 260, Exhaust - 260 Lobe Separation - 110

Any other suggestions on what to get?

I don't have a suggestion on a cam, but if you do go with a cam, it's alot more work to install. You'll have to drop the cradle and pull off quite a bit more than you would to just do the lifters. The lifters can be done in about 4-6 hours if you know what you're doing (I have had to pull the top end off of a fiero more than a few times).

I don't know what you're plans are though but I'm just throwing that tidbit of info out for you.

God wrote:I don't have a suggestion on a cam, but if you do go with a cam, it's alot more work to install. You'll have to drop the cradle and pull off quite a bit more than you would to just do the lifters. The lifters can be done in about 4-6 hours if you know what you're doing (I have had to pull the top end off of a fiero more than a few times).

I don't know what you're plans are though but I'm just throwing that tidbit of info out for you.

I took next week off, and figure I may as well do the things I meant to do the first time I had the engine out. I'll be doing the timing chain set, and water pump as well. Maybe the coolant crossover pipe.

If you want to spend the money and take the time to replace the cam. I think it is a good idea to throw in a performance cam like the fiero store one. Same amount of work and a little more oomph.

Well, I have this stuff on its way here now:

85-88 V6 COMP-CAMS PERFORMANCE CAM KIT (260H)
85-88 V6 TIMING CHAIN & SPROCKET KIT
85-88 V6 TIMING CHAIN DAMPNER
85-88 V6 PUSH ROD SET
85-88 V6 WATER PUMP

Already got the timing cover gasket and intake gasket kit. I'll probably get a rocker arm to replace the one thats getting tapped on, and valve seals as well.

Isn't there a junkyard 3400 rocker that is 1.6:1 ratio? Another thought if it's all ripped down.