Boxerworks.com

Well, I wish I'd seen this thread much earlier. I do understand what you are saying about removing the pushrods; the lifters seem to grab the last couple mm of rod before they pop out.

My thought was, since it's very simple, dismantle & inspect the lifters rather than guess, then I looked at the post dates... sorry to hear of your predicament. Now may be the time for a valve job, timing chain,etc "while you're in there" ?

Good luck!

If your cylinder compression is good, and you are not buring oil, then I would not even think of going into it more. I would examine all of the lifters for imperfections. I hope that you get the broken one out easily. I think that with the cylinder removed it is easy.

On older engines the block has a bronze bushing that can get damaged by a broken lifter and that is a problem, as the new bushing must be honed after installation.

Duane, when you say "on older engines", what years are we talking about?

lrz wrote:the lifters seem to grab the last couple mm of rod before they pop out...

YES, exactly. Back in November I knew something wasn't quite right but I wasn't sure what it was.

Duane Ausherman wrote:I hope that you get the broken one out easily. I think that with the cylinder removed it is easy... On older engines the block has a bronze bushing that can get damaged by a broken lifter and that is a problem, as the new bushing must be honed after installation.

The broken lifter does not want to come out. Today I may try to apply some heat to the case but other than that I fear I may have to remove the cam and push the lifter out (rather than pulling). Duane, do you have any photos/diagrams/etc. referencing this bronze bushing?

I'm wondering if you might have a rocker needle stuck in the lifter bore. Can you push what's left of your lifter back, rotate it a touch, and look for any stray needles? Maybe remove same with needlenose pliers and then pull the remains of the lifter?

I can't imagine how a needle could get back up to the lifter.

Personally, I don't like the later needle type rocker arm bearings. They can fail dramatically....... and do often. Far better to have the /5 bushing type that simply get louder and louder, but keep on running.

We had a few needles fail in 1974, so they had few miles on them. Not a clever design for reliability. When you have a rocker arm off, check the needles and you will probably find that they aren't round any more.

The /2 used a bushing in the case for the lifter. I am trying to remember if BMW continued that all of the way through the series, or dropped it the last couple of years. I am not sure when they stopped using a bushing to protect the case.

I think that with the cylinders removed one can get behind the broken lifter and shove/tap it out. I seem to remember doing this once............. a long time ago.

I just went down in the basement and looked at a bare block I have. With the oil pan off you can easily tap on the cam end of the lifters with a small hammer and punch. Or you could try a rare earth magnet glued to a stick.

George, thanks, I may have done it via the pan and not a cylinder. Its only been 40 years and one would think that I coudl remember better than that.

I was able to get the top half of the broken lifter out yesterday, but the bottom half is still in there. It slides up to a point but then stops. I'll get it out eventually, but I'm more concerned about the condition of the bore itself. I'll know more once the rest of the lifter is out, but it looks (and feels) like it may be badly scored. The propect of having to get the bore machined and sleeved seems like a big and expensive deal, and hopefully a last resort... Has anybody ever had to do that?

I would try to remove any burrs ahead of the broken lifter first and then carefully heat the block with a good heat gun around the opening. I had to do this on my /2 and it worked. If it moves freely for some distance then I would think that the damage if any is in front where you should be able to carefully stone the burrs off with a round stone.