Dated 1968, 440 engine, 68 440 OEM heads, hydraulic lifters, mild cam. Basically a pretty much stock engine. No valve train mods, Maybe 30K miles on it. Had run like a sewing machine, no probs
Ironically, I was out on my last cruise up here in the rockies before I store her for the winter
For about the last 100 miles I was hearing a very faint ticking. Almost like a small header leak, so I just let it go
I was idling at a stoplight and suddenly, the ticking got very, very loud, so I pulled over, stopped and had it towed back home (Oil pressure went down slightly right before I shut her down (I run digital gauges), temp stayed in the norm
So today, I pulled the valve covers, saw nothing, then removed the intake ,manifold
The #1 cylinder pushrods, intake and exhaust, were bent.
I removed the two, #1, hydraulic lifters. I tried to collaspe the lifter centers on my bench by pushing down on the centers and they would not collapse. So...............
1. Sound like the lifters (hydraulic) are shot? (They removed from their lifter bores easily however, as they should)
2. If they are bad, what caused it?
All the oil passages in the push rods and rockers look clear, (by flashlight)
I see no metal shaving in the valve train, lifter or intake valleys.
Cursory inspection, for now, of the cam lobes for number 1 look OK
#1 stamped, both rockers, look ok
What happened here and what else should I look for?
