<VV> Lifters and linkages

[BobHelt at aol.com]

Smitty,
Surprised you should ask. Thought you'd  know. It's valve  float.  Over 
revving the engine. 
What happens is that the inertia is great enough to keep the  valves open 
and overcome spring pressure trying to seat the valves. This opens  up the 
clearance and allows the lifter to try to reduce the clearance. When this  
happens, , the plunger pushes against the seat and if the retaining clip can't  
hold, the lifter separates as you found. The original lifters were very bad 
in  this respect. That is why Yenko replaced the lifters in all his racing  
Stingers.
Bob Helt
 
 
In a message dated 10/30/2014 8:43:47 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,  
virtualvairs at corvair.org writes:

Smitty  Says;  First, we have a club newbie that is trying to straighten 
out his  recently acquired “Ran when parked” car engine.  Getting into the 
valve  train he found two lifters with the snap ring out and the lifters 
disassembled  in place.  What causes  this?