I didn’t do any trouble shooting to see exactly what the problem with them was.
A friend had some of the “normal” lifters at his shop, so I swapped those in without even pulling the intake manifold off.
The problem was solved, so I forged ahead.
My “assumption” was that they were too low in the bore and oil was running out the bottom.
Well..... more correctly....... the bottom of oil band was too low in the bore, creating a path from the oil gallery right back into the crankcase.
With those lifters in the motor it basically had zero oil pressure.
