I'm going to replace my hydraulic lifters soon. Some of them are worn out and noisy but I want to replace them all (as recommended by experts) to make sure others don't fail soon.
The car is a Peugeot 406 1.8 16V DOHC (rocker-free) with XU7JP4 LFY engine.
I have already bought a complete set of brand new hydraulic lifters.
I was reading Haynes manual about replacing the lifters and this part caught my notice:
Check that the hydraulic tappets are not fully extended .
To check, compress the piston (24) in the tappet between the thumb and index finger to compress the spring .
If the piston appears blocked, the high pressure chamber (A) is full of oil and fully extended .
To drain the high pressure chamber, remove the piston (24) by tapping the tappet on a block of wood .
Remove the oil by pressing on the ball (26) and drain the low pressure chamber (B) .
When refitting, place a little oil in the low pressure chamber (B) .
According to above, Peugeot recommends installing lifters dry which means I shouldn't prime them by soaking them in oil. This is what I don't understand.
Does Peugeot really want me to start the engine with DRY lifters and ruin my camshaft lobes?!!
As you know, if you start the engine with dry lifters, it may take a few minutes before they pump up with oil. During this time, cam lobes will probably wear out quickly due to the lash being present in the system.
I was thinking about finding a solution for this problem but the only thing I can think of to prevent damaging the cam lobes is to disconnect coil and injector sockets and crank the engine over by the starter a couple of revolutions to help fill the lifters a little bit before starting the engine. However, I don't think this will help much because cranking RPM is no more than 300 or so.
What should I do with my brand new lifters? They are already dry. Should I clean them with diesel or brake cleaner before assembly?
