Fix It

Remove the intake manifold and valve covers. Set them aside and take note of how all the bolts were positioned. Looking down into the engine, you should now be able to see the heads of the valves. But the push-rod will be passing over the top, preventing you from removing them.

Remove the rocker arms and push-rods. With all the upper hardware on the engine disassembled, the cylinder head can be unbolted and lifted off the rest of the engine, giving you access to the tappets below. With the tappets released and removed, the lifters are accessible and ready to be removed.

Grip the heads of the lifters with the needle-nose pliers and caully lift them up and out of their respective recesses. Lower the new lifters into the hole and replace the tappets. The tightness of the tappets is a trial and error process for mechanics who lack professional measuring equipment, so you may need to adjust them after the engine has been rebuilt. If the engine runs roughly, they need to be loosened. If they make a tapping noise, they need to be tightened.

Replace the push-rods, rocker arms, valve covers and intake manifold, ensuring all bolts are properly tightened. Start the engine and allow it to run for five minutes, then stop it and make the necessary tappet adjustments. Repeat until the engine is running smoothly, allowing it to cool for several minutes between each run.

Remove the air cleaner, carburetor or throttle body injector, fuel lines and linkages. Remove any vacuum lines or electrical connectors attached to the intake manifold. Label all wires or vacuum hoses to ensure they can be put back into their original locations later. Place a shop rag over the exposed intake manifold where the carburetor or throttle body was removed. Ensure no dirt or other items fall into the intake manifold.

Remove the valve covers and set them aside. Loosen the valve adjuster lock nuts and turn the adjuster screws counterclockwise on all valves. The valve rockers should be loose enough to rotate sideways using only your fingers.

Drain the radiator coolant into a drain pan. Remove the intake manifold bolts and lift the intake manifold off the engine. Clean any residual gasket material or dirt off the mating surfaces of the manifold and cylinder heads using a scraper or putty knife and shop rags. Use caution and work caully to ensure no dirt or gasket material falls into the exposed engine or cylinder head intake ports.

Rotate the valve rocker arms to the side and remove the push rods. Arrange the push rods in order of removal to ensure they can be replaced in exactly the same position later. Remove the valve lifters from the bore using a strong magnet. Organize the lifters in the same way as the push rods, keeping them in order.

Inspect the bottom of the lifters for excessive wear. A lifter that is scratched or gouged indicates a worn out camshaft that should be replaced.

Lift the hood and prop it open. Slide a drain pan under the radiator and open the drain cock. Drain the coolant from the radiator. Remove the top radiator hose from the radiator and the intake manifold.

Snap a photo of the top of the engine with your cell phone camera. This will to aid reassembly.

Remove the air cleaner. Disconnect the fuel line and the throttle cable, or the linkage if so equipped, from the carburetor.

Remove the distributor cap from the distributor. Make a mark on the distributor housing corresponding with the electrode on the end of the rotor button. This makes it easy to realign the rotor button with the distributor when reinstalling the distributor. Unplug the distributor, loosen the distributor hold down clamp and slide it back, and lift the distributor shaft out of the intake manifold.

Loosen and remove the bolts that attach the valve covers to the cylinder head. Remove the 12 bolts that attach the intake manifold to the cylinder heads. Tap a straight screwdriver blade between the intake manifold and the block. The intake manifold is sometimes glued down with gasket cement.

Loosen the rocker arms on all the valves that need the lifters replaced. Record the number of full and partial turns the rocker nuts are turned on each rocker to ease reinstallation.

Remove the push rods from the top of lifters that are to be removed. Record where each push rod was located so that you can reinstall them in the same place in the same position.

Grip the top edge of the lifter to be removed with a vise-grip pliers and rotate it while pulling up on it. Sometimes the bottom of the lifter gets a build-up of varnish on it, and it takes a bit of rotating and pulling to remove the lifter from its bore.

Reinstall the new lifters. Reposition the push rods in the exact same hole they were in, in the same position. Replace the rocker arm on top of the push rod and valve stem. Thread the rocker arm nuts back onto the studs the same amount of turns needed to remove them.