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Mitzpah Engineering HVLA - Where?


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Engineer here

 

I hate both TLAs and FOLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms and FOur-Letter Acronyms). It's almost impossible to talk with other departments at work without carrying around a glossary.

 

Anyways, refurbishing them yourself is probably the best bet.

 

There was a thread not too long ago about stretching the spring in the cam case (for better oil pressure and therefore flow). It might be an alternative, but I'm not sure if doing that might cause problems somewhere else.

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someone on XT6.net used their HVLA's on a completely rebuilt ER27 and seemed pleased with them.

 

rebuilding them yourself is an interesting learning experience but otherwise time consuming and tedious. i've done a bunch, pretty sure i'll purchase the rest. cleaning them yourself definitely works and brings them back to excellent working order. i've never had TOD issues and all i've ever done is reseal the oil pump when needed. never needed to do anything fancy or any tricks or additives. i cleaned HVLA's when doing head gaskets as preventative maintenance. had two HVLA's fail (stuck), they were not serviceable. no amount of heat, ATF, DIESEL, MMO, soaking or prying would allow me to disassemble them. they were replaced with extra's i had and cleaned.

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Good link to the lifter fix. I've got it saved now.

I'm replacing the check valve spring.

Sweet! only $5.75 for each one, and I get to keep mine!

For $60-80 each I would clean 'em up and say screw it, but that cheap might as well replace with everything else while the engine's out.

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I would caution you, some HLVA's caps are staked, so they are not serviceable, i know they came in some 88's i don't know if there an older thing or a newer thing.

 

My 86 came with that type, and yes, they are rebuildable, but it's very time consuming to do it without damaging them. However, I did do it, and they worked just fine.

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agreed, they are servicable even if they are staked in. i've done it. but again it's a tedious process.

 

 

i'm not sure what this means:

 

"so this IS the authoritive silver bullet to the TOD?"

 

the HVLA's are not a miracle cure for ticking. they are only if the HVLA's are causing the ticking. if your oil pump isn't properly sealed or is out of spec or you have a massive leak somewhere then you can install brand new HVLA's and still have a noisey engine. there is no one size fits all cure to HVLA noise. HVLA failure and oil pump seals/gaskets are the most common causes (the latter being the most common failure point in my experience).

at 5 or 6 bucks each (even cheaper if you send your own in) it's definitely a no brainer to replace them while the engine is apart.

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