Classic/Antique Car Repair: oil around lifter?, flapper valve, loose debris

Question
my buddy has a chevy 350 we thought we heard a racket in there so we took offf the valve cover one of the lifters has a light brown fluid coming from it what is this ?what should i do?
  thanks
tim

Answer
It is really hard to see the tops of the lifters by looking down the pushrod hole, but if that is what you did, and the oil flow was more than a trickle, the lifter has collapsed, causing the noise.  The lifter is turning the oil a lighter color because it is getting air mixed with the oil in the process somehow - I doubt it is anything other than engine oil.

If the pushrod seems straight, and there is no obvious problem with the rocker arm (like it being too loose and flopping around), then I think the lifter has failed for some reason - maybe just a particle of dirt stuck in the flapper valve inside the lifter, but more likely a worse problem with the lifter.  

Lifters are cheap, but changing them without taking the engine apart is pretty tricky.   You can do it, but you have to remove the pushrod and rocker arm, and then pull the lifter up through the pushrod hole with a magnet or anything you can devise to grab the inside of the lifter's top edge and pull it up - or a strong but very small gauge piece of wire with a tiny hook on the end of it will do it.  The lifter will come a little ways easily, but then it will tend to hang up.  You just have to keep working it up and down many times; it will come a further small distance each time, until finally it will come all the way out of its hole.  Be very careful not to let it get away from you!  When you do this, you have to make sure no dirt gets into the lifter socket.  

Make sure the new lifter is clean and all the loose debris it cleared away from the lifter bore hole, then lower the new lifter into the hole until it contacts the camshaft. When you have the new lifter in place, put the pushrod and rocker arm back the way it was, but do not tighten it beyond just taking the slack out of the pushrod. Leave the valve cover off for now.  Change the oil in the engine and put in either a ZDDP additive or use Valvoline or Castrol Racing oil with ZDDP additive already in the oil for the next 5000 miles to break in the new lifter.   

This is not the best procedure, the best procedure is to replace the camshaft and all the lifters at the same time, but I'm assuming you don't want to spend that much money on this problem.

Now, start the engine and let it idle, it will miss at first, but after it starts running smooth again, very slowly, 1/4 of a turn at a time, tighten the valve adjustment until the lifter quiets down, then tighten it 1-1/4 turns further on the adjustment, pausing after each 1/4 turn to let the lifter adjust - you can tell when it does this because the engine will quit missing when it adjusts.

Dick