Lifters. Anyone ever replaced/fooled around with 'em?

[Mach10]

Here's my problem;

I have 2 motors, a 92, and a 94.

The 92 has fragged itself beyond all imagining, so I'm stripping it down for parts.

The 94 just had the bottom-end freshened up and is almost ready to go back together.

Here's my problem:

I know the 92 had some lifter noise. I've never heard the 94 run.

I decided to collect all the lifters from both motors and pick the 24 best shape ones.

Here's the thing;

The 94 lifters each have about 1/4" of spring-loaded but smooth play when pumped full of oil (but the bleed passage unplugged.
I found 3 of them that had either felt like they were full of sand (grindy, binding movement) or rock solid (no movement at all.).

Now the lifters I pulled from the 92 are all rock-solid except for one or two that have a tiny fraction of movement.

So which is it?

Are the solid ones done? Or are the softer ones screwed up?

WHAT DOES A NEW LIFTER FEEL LIKE?

None of the part shops in town have any on hand that I can check. Someone with the info can save me the $24 and 4 days I'd have to wait to find out

[OldSkoolGP]

Well it depends. If they're solid but compressed, and the springs aren't unbinding that could be a problem. Most likely you lifter noise is caused by the oiler passage probem in the 91-93 carriers. They updated them in 94 so they would have proper oiling. When you squeeze a lifter, it should never make any kind of noise. If it does, toss it. And movement does not necesssarily mean lifters are bad. If they move a bit, they probably just lost some pressure. If they bottom out, that may be a cause for concern.

Ben does sell new performance lifters for the 3.4 on his site, and they are cheaper than stock replacements. I run them in my car and am pleased with the results. The only time I ever get lifter tick anymore is after a run on the road course. And it's minor and goes away as soon as the oil cools down, and it's only one of them.

[your_I.D.]

The lifters are easy to disassemble and inspect and clean. Take a 13/16 deep socket. Put lifter on it with the plunger pointed into socket. Than bang socket on concrete a few times. Plunger will fall into socket. heres a few photos of a lifter disassembled.

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/dilligaf_/DOHC/Lifter%20disassembled/

[Mach10]

Hey! Thanks!

I took one of the obviously boned ones and beat the crap out of it trying to take it apart...

Didn't even consider that the plunger would just pop out... What retains it?