So I got my low mileage lifters in today and I was kinda curious so I cleaned up all the oil and stuff on them and noticed the bottom of them is held in with a clip. So, I took the clip out just to see what everything looked like.
For some reason I expected a spring to be in there but they are hollow inside (I assume this is where the oil fills up and you get the hydraulic action). The hollow area seems to be a sleeve of some type. At the bottom of this is a small hole that has some sort of spring actuated plug. I stuck a really small screw driver down in there and when you press on that plug, the sleeve moves inside the lifter pretty freely. Plug it up and you get some resistance (As one would expect).
So, my question would be if you buy new lifters, they will come to you dry, correct? And you need to soak them in oil, correct?
If I were to somehow get that sleeve out (not sure how I'll do that, because there is considerable resistance in pulling it out without pressing also on that plug to relieve the suction), I should be able to clean everything out and put it back together and then soak it in oil to get all the air out right?
The reason I want to do this is so that I can clean out all the oil and have the lifters cryo treated. If you are unfamiliar with this, just do a google search. But the process would probably gum up any residual oil in the lifters and so I want to get all the oil out that I can.
In addition to this, I was thinking, if there is a spring on the other side of that sleeve, then all one would have to do is find a slightly stiffer spring and perhaps reduce the chance of valve float since one way to reduce this is to use higher preload lifters.
Anyway, I appreciate any insight anyone can provide.