I have a 71 Dart with a later model Slant/6. The engine has twice now lost a cylinder and run on five. I take the valve cover off and one of the push rods is loose and the lifter is laying over on it's side. I'm guessing this is a faulty hydraulics issue. The lifter bleeds down or fails to pump up, colapses and the cylinder is dead......am I right? OR do I have some other problem? I'd like to install new lifter, pushrods and keep on driving. Any suggestions?

dodge47@att.net

Unless you have a newer engine, the 71 should be a mechanical cam. We don't have too much info about your engine here, so I'm going to take some shots in the dark.

Have you checked this rod for straightness?

225/198 use one length rod, the 170 rod is shorter. Any chance in the world that during a rebuild you could have gotten one of the shorter rods mixed in?

Have you checked the rocker arm and the adjusting nut? Maybe you have a cracked rocker arm that is "openning up" of an adjuster that's backing out.

Have you done some serious milling on your head and/or block? If the geometry if messed-up, you may want to consider custom length push rods.
:
: like to install new lifter, pushrods and
: keep on driving.

I have a lifter and 225 pushrod in my extra NOS pile, so we could fix you up for minimal $$


tlg225ccr@aol.com