Lifters and valve specifications - '63 144ci

[redfalken]

My trick with noisy lifters was to let the engine run a few minutes, shut it off for a few seconds and then start it back up. The noise usually went away. Learned that one from Gary MacD!

If you're rocker arms are non-adjustable, the lifters are hydraulic. If the rockers are adjustable, they are most likely solid lifters but...

A lot of stuff can happen to a 40+ year old car. I have hydraulic lifters with adjustable rockers. People sometimes do this when the block and/or head gets milled so they can compensate for the machining.

I've heard others have had good luck with Mystery Oil too. Might be a cheap fix!

[Luva65wagon]

Karsten (63Sedan) stopped by last night and I had a look at the car. It's neat. It was well after 9PM and getting dark by the time he got there, but it has some oddities about it he'll have to work through. It has the external rocker-arm oiler installed on it, I counted at least 3 (or was it 4) missing valve-cover bolts. He's rebuilt the carb, but it still sounds like that may have issues. I gave him a few suggestions of things to look at, but it looks to be original, so I suspect it is the 144. Should have grabbed a flashlight and poked around more.

We were also looking at the brake light issue, which I think is due to the brake plunger cam bolt possibly rotated to the high spot and not letting the push-rod retract fully. There was 0 play in the brake pedal. So that will likely solve the brake lights not going off when they should - but may also be the reason for odd brake behavior. The plunger has to fully retract - simple as that. I still supplied the alternate brake switch I bought from Pick and Pull, just in case. But I don't think he'll need it. He recently replaced the brake master (with the same fruit-jar version) and the hydraulic switch is fairly new.

Anyway, he's looking to get it running well so he can sell it. It's a pretty decent survivor car, so I think it will make anyone a nice little driver when he's ready to sell it.

[Jeff W]

I'm new... what is an "external rocker-arm oiler" ?

[Luva65wagon]

I've seen 'em on ebay a couple times. You tee off the oil-pressure switch port with a line that runs directly up to the rocker arm (drill ye-old hole in valve cover and keep it from seeping - and good luck with that) and now the rockers get all the oil they could ever want.

I think the rocker oiling is a "known issue" with these engines, and this was the "fix."

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....m=290360310460