Alright... it has come to this... Cara working on 3.8s. I'm certain this is a sign of the Apocalypse.
So, I was helping a friend with his 3.8 motor, he is installing new H/C/I, and bought new stud-mounted roller rocker arms. The installation instructions were the same for my 302, and the lifters looked the same. The kit also came with shims, unlike my car, but there were no instructions for them.
I installed the kit without the shims, he bought the longer pushrods for that cylinder head, and I had plenty of room on the stud for adjustment.
When I got to the 5th intake valve, I tightened adjusted the rocker to zero lash and went a half turn more, but there was hardly any resistance like the others. I tried again, and even double checked to ensure the lifter was on the base circle, but I had the same issue. I noticed the lifter felt a bit 'spongy', I took the lifter out, and felt the same thing... this one and a couple others had much more play than the others.
Is this normal, maybe the oil bled out of them? After I installed all according to the instructions, I noticed the rockers had more play than I was used to seeing with my engine.
Are the lifters different on the 6ers? Is this amount of 'sponginess' on the hydraulic lifters normal? Thanks!
