[MEJ1990TM]

Having just torqued the heads down, and bolting the headers up in the '71 I decided I'd pull a lifter and see what I could see. I had assumed that it was a hydraulic lifter cam. I've never seen a hydraulic lifter, so I am not sure if I am looking in the wrong area to determine what type of lifter this is. I assumed that with a hydraulic lifter the lifter itself compresses. Is that the case, or are there parts on the inside that compress and the outer shell remains solid? It looks just like the lifters that came out of the '70. But like I said I've not seen a hydraulic lifter in person so I really can't say what this one is.

I know this is elementary, but the search I did yielded nothing useful. Mostly just how to adjust for solid and hydraulic lifters. I can take a picture of the lifter if need be.

[bracketchev1221]

If you can compress the center cup, it is hydraulic. But usually, if the center cup is retained by a snap ring, it is solid. If the center cup has two little parallel rods retaining it, it is hydraulic.

[MEJ1990TM]

Thank you. I noticed a lifter that had one of those snap rings sticking out. It was confusing me because I was not able to compress the center part on the lifter I pulled. I have heard of lifters staying pumped up after seeing too high of an RPM. I hope that isn't the case here.

[Dave Birdwell]

Once you take the pushrod out, the spring inside the lifter body pushes the plunger all the way up to the top of the snap ring. If the lifter has oil in it, which it should, you can't push the plunger back down because of the internal check ball...... To reassemble the engine, you have to get the oil out of the lifter so that it will compress until you start the engine and get oil back inside it.