No Compression After Cleaning Lifters
 

Hi there, I have a 1999 Saturn SL1 SOHC and when we went to replace the valve cover gasket realized inside there was nasty. He removed the lifters, cleaned everything with gasoline and degreaser, and had to replace one of the lifters that had collapsed. When he put everything back together it was running worse than before and now there is no compression at all.
One thing he read said to soak them overnight in oil and pump them in the oil before putting in and another site said no, and he did the first one. Was something done wrong, anybody have any ideas what could be wrong and/or what we need to do to fix it?

Thank you.

I am not an engine internals expert.

Andy is.

My first thought is that you didn't seat the lifters all the way before bolting them down with the restrictor plates. If the lifters did not fully seat, then when you reattached the rockers, once tightened down they would be holding the valves partially open during the time they should be totally closed. A slightly open valve would allow enough compression for the engine to run, but crappily due to the low compression. Being that some of the valves were partially open, they were projecting into the combustion chamber during combustion. "In the fire" so to speak.

Did you rotate the crank to rotate the cam by hand to ensure proper lifter operation before replacing the rockers? If they were not fully seated they would not be fully touching the cam lobes as they rotated.
Yes, it is true that the face of every valve is exposed to the combustion event each time. but once you leave more of the valve exposed than is supposed to be, you increase the risk of burning them.

Assuming there was no mangling event (metal on metal destruction), I'm thinking you burned a bunch of valves -- likely the exhaust since they would see the high temperatures on more of the valve than they are designed to.

Don't take my word for it. THIS IS A GUESS.

Andy?
Am I close?

Because one of them was collapsed is why he took the rest out and cleaned them. They were filled with sludge and oil. Since he did do all that is there somewhere that has the procedure for putting everything in correctly? From torque on the bolts if that is even required.
Do they need to be filled with oil and all before being installed? Someone told us that they needed to soak overnight in oil to get filled with oil before installing.

Sorry for all the questions, I can do some things with my car myself but on this I am lost and whatever he did my car quit working, and I have been able to keep my "Bruce" going for 11 years.

When he took them out, he did take the lifters apart, he cleaned them inside and out, then he soaked them in the oil to fill them up, had added Lithium grease to the outside of them.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, thank you all so much for the information.

So it is possible to overpump up a lifter?
Just trying to learn along the way (at the expense of looking stupid in public---which I usually do anyway).

The part I don't get is that the car initially ran crappily, then lost compression.

Derf, my car was running pretty good, had some knocking sounds going on and had oil leaking really bad from the valve cover gasket. After I put in new spark plugs it actually sounded better than it did before. It was only after he did all that with the lifters that it started sound really crappy then lost compression.
When he had taken apart the lifters and cleaned them, he put them back together, put them in the car dry and started the car. It sounded like the engine would fall out of the bottom any second. That is when he took them out and soaked them in the oil overnight and put them back in, and that is when there was no compression at all.
If any of that made any sense.
Oh and I"m right there along with you on the looking stupid in public.

Are there torque specs for putting the rocker arms back on? He "Googled" that information and it said 19 foot pounds of torque for them. I was wondering if maybe they were tightened too tight..
And my Saturn has 178K on it.