While inspecting the roller lifters for a used motor I picked up, I pressed down where the push rod goes on top of the lifter to see if they give in to light pressure. All of the lifters were rock solid, could not be pushed in exept two, they pushed in with light pressure. We took one apart and there was scoring on the inside indicating that a lifter that gives in to light pressure is done for. So I went and bought two new ones, but when I checked the 2 new ones (federal mogal Sealed Power) the new ones gave in to pressure as well. Then I popped the valve covers off another motor #2 I am working on and checked one side and half of them were weak, the others were solid. But I believe we checked them as they came out of the running motor #2 and they were all solid. Do they leak down over time with no pressure? I was having some valvetrain geometry issues, from milling the head ten thousandth, right before I took the motor #2 apart, and I ended up with 2 cracked retainers, I am told that I need shims at on the pedestal that are at least 10 thousandths, and my pushrods were essentially too long. Do you think that I killed the lifters from that? Are my lifters good or bad?
