So I fired up the boat last weekend and heard the tell tale tick of a collapsed lifter. Got around to digging deeper tonight and once the valve cover was off, I realized #8 Exhaust was soft. Of course, the only way to get it out was to pull the intake... or was it?

I was actually able to sneak it out the distributor bore with two magnets

Turns out the baffle inside is in about 5 pieces.

2 Questions:

Best Exhaust gaskets for a 454 with Gil exhaust?

Lifter brand recommendation?

Has anyone ever swapped the guts from the new one into the old case so I don't have to worry about any break in issues? (Hyd. Flat tappet) Ive never actually thought about doing that, but it sorta makes sense.

The culprit

A PacMan ghost???

He snuck in and game over'd my lifter.

It's whats left of the oil metering valve.

glad ya found your prob Buddy, hope U can get'r go'n soon!!! Thanx 4 the call!

The Mr. Gasket BBC exhaust gaskets you can get at the auto parts store seem to work pretty good. Oreilly's usually carries them, not sure about Autozone or Advanced.

roller lifter?? moral..flat tappet,,crower cam saver..with the R at the end of the part number..

Ha ha, that is great! Does look like it.

Sad, but how many younger kids today wouldn't even get that? I was so glad that my parents were "rich enough" to pay $50 for the Atari 2600 Pac-man game when it came out in the 80's - That was a lot of coin back then and we were on a waiting list for months for it to be released. Came with a pacman cookie jar also, I think I still have that in the cupboard.

Good find on being able to pull it through the distributor, pretty slick.

Brian

Thanks, fixx. Are those crowers the lifter merc uses? I think I am going to swap the guts. I'll swing by Jegs on my way home and see what they have.

Just replace lifter and do 20 min breakin at 1,200 rpm I belive. Either way, no problem. Had a friend who used to do chevy 305 or 307 cam jobs all the time with used cams and used lifters. and did not matter what engine it came out of either. he used 283,307,327,350 cams in all mouse motors. never had a come back either. Go for it.
B38