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I hate the first start up, especially on a bike where I told myself I wasn't going into the engine for mods. Just ride it and be happy, yeah right.
I told my wife 2 years ago that I was going to leave my bike stock. She reminded me of my words when I installed the cam so I forgot to mention the big bore kit I had on order.
Did not inject the lifters, figured why wait even longer for them to bleed down during PR adjustment. Just worked assembly lube into the rollers, put a bit on the outside and installed them. The clattering wasn't like "oh **** turn it off" levels, but it wasn't quieting down as fast as I would expect and didn't want to do damage. I'll go 3 turns next time around and see what happens.
I used to just soak new lifters in oil for 12-24 hours before installing them. When I built my 117" TC for the '15 I did it that way. When I was adjusting the pushrods I noticed the front exhaust felt a little different. When I started the motor it was noisy. I tried re-adjusting it, but it was noisy. I called Fueling and the first thing I was asked by the tech is whether I injected the lifters with oil. He said that even soaking them they could be dry internally and cause damage to the lifter. In that case I don't believe it, I think it was just a bad lifter. They did replace it and problem solved. Since then I have injected new lifters. If nothing else it makes it easier to tell when the pushrod has made contact so you can start counting flats to do your adjustment. Do I really think that soaking them didn't get enough oil in them to lube them? No, but injecting them is faster and like I said, there is at least one benefit. Also, if you get a bad one there is no doubt that it was internally lubed. The little extra time you would have spent waiting for them to bleed down would have been a lot less than what you have spent tearing back down and chasing what might just turn out to be a ghost.
I have only worked on stock stuff but a couple of times with solid pushrods, I have attempted to crank engine thinking it would bring up pressure since I had turned them a lot.
Both times, for some reason, it took what appeared to be forever for lifters to fill. And when they are down, theses motors sound like they are coming apart at idle.
You have experience in what you did. I think you should have come up easy on idle to about 2000 and let it purge the air. For at least a couple minutes. If it was just a lifter, it was not going to hurt it.
I just rebuild the Jeep you see here. I drove the oil pump with a electric drill. It took quite a while to see oil at rocker arms.
With adjustable pushrods, you really do not want oil in lifters to begin with I would not think. Not a lot of oil flowing at crank speed either. Not a whole lot at idle but once lubricated, it's fine. Who idles a Harley much.
I used to just soak new lifters in oil for 12-24 hours before installing them. When I built my 117" TC for the '15 I did it that way. When I was adjusting the pushrods I noticed the front exhaust felt a little different. When I started the motor it was noisy. I tried re-adjusting it, but it was noisy. I called Fueling and the first thing I was asked by the tech is whether I injected the lifters with oil. He said that even soaking them they could be dry internally and cause damage to the lifter. In that case I don't believe it, I think it was just a bad lifter. They did replace it and problem solved. Since then I have injected new lifters. If nothing else it makes it easier to tell when the pushrod has made contact so you can start counting flats to do your adjustment. Do I really think that soaking them didn't get enough oil in them to lube them? No, but injecting them is faster and like I said, there is at least one benefit. Also, if you get a bad one there is no doubt that it was internally lubed. The little extra time you would have spent waiting for them to bleed down would have been a lot less than what you have spent tearing back down and chasing what might just turn out to be a ghost.
This might be a stupid question but what do you use to inject the oil, just a regular syringe? I looked around on you tube for a video, but seems there arent any.
This might be a stupid question but what do you use to inject the oil, just a regular syringe? I looked around on you tube for a video, but seems there arent any.
Yeah, a syringe works just fine. Put it against the hole on the side of the lifter and push oil until it comes out the top. I was surprised when I first tried it how easy it was to do. Like most of this stuff, it ain't rocket science!
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