Rover V8 hydraulic tappets/lifters. Can you clean them if they have no wear? 

When I was an apprentice in a British Leyland garage in the seventies we used to do this quite regularly.

Take a socket, and put the tappet in a big vise, with the socket in the top. Slowly increase pressure, bit by bit, waiting a minute or two between turns. You will bleed it out, compress it, and then you can introduce cleaner through the hole as you let it expand. Some U.S. engines (GM) require this procedure when reassembling the heads.

Haha well that's a helpful bit of knowledge, BMW motors when noisy lifters start , they rev the motor to around 2or 3 thousand rpm for 3 minutes to prime them and say it goes away for good, think I'd clean them first to be sure though, nice tip Mike thanks 👌

just done this job on my rover v8, i found once the clip and the cap was out, gently tapping them top down on the vice till they cam to the top, then hooking them with a small screwdriver got the piston out.

I always buy new lifters but I do LOVE saving old parts if possible - nice video this 🙂

You can also put the lifter into ultrasonic cleaner.

Now I understand why the 300 tdi has a solid roller tappet camshaft and not a hydraulic one ! That "dirty" oil looked like my 300 tdi Disco 1 at its regular 5000km oil change 😂 Shudder to think what missing a oil change would do if it had hydraulic tappets and went over by a couple of thousand k's 😱

Great video, quite educational, thank you!

Interesting. Thank you.

I was surprised in Venezuela to meet someone with a carbureted 350 install. I think he had someone locally make a bellhousing adapter. Not sure if the manual transmission was worn before or after conversion. Gas was less expensive than water.

Hi again buddy, I'm just starting to rebuild a 3.9 v8, I've checked my lifters no sign of wear out side so will definitely be doing this on mine. Don't suppose you could show me what to look for on camshaft damage wise? Again I wish you lived down road as I'd love to be taught by you as you say how it is in layman's terms. Keep up the Sterling work fella, you are an inspiration into doing yourself on these here rovers Thanks again Dave

That looks bloody tedious, but you're probably stuck inside singing 'Baby it's cold outside '!

Glad I found this as mine were all a bit sticky. I made the mistake of taking them all out though and now I’m told that they won’t work putting them back in a different order. Is this true? Will I need to buy a new set and new cam?

What causes the build up of black deposits in the rocker, etc in the V8?

Do you need to bleed the air out/prime them with new oil before you put back in?

Sets of lifters are pretty cheap so you wonder if the effort is worth it but then again is the quality as good as the originals?

How dose the liter come out of the head

$120 for 16 of them at British Atlantic - my time is worth a lot more than this

Hi, my oil pick up got blocked and I lost pressure. I have cleared the blockage and put a new oil filter in. The oil light now goes out when turning over but it won't fire. Can the followers be recharged simy by turning the engine over?