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Put it back together to get a compression reading. It was 155-175 on the passenger side and 160-170 on the drivers. A little more variation than id like on the passenger side, but no dead cylinders.

If this thing needs to be built can anyone recommend a nailhead builder on the east coast. North carolina area. I wont have the time to do it and would rather let someone with the specific knowledge do their thing.

At this point I’ll probably pull the cam and if the bearings aren’t trashed do cam, lifters, timing gears. And ill pull the heads inspect and address what i find. If the cam bearings are bad ill go ahead and pull the motor.

Yea its a 100000 mile car. I researched the grey sludge and seems to be common in 50 plus year old motors that didnt get driven much or lots of short trips

Yea this is what it looked like before

65rivgs i never hooked a guage to it. Idiot light never came on or flickered. There was a bunch of sludge i had to clean out of the top end. Ill pull the pan to clean it and inspect the pump and main bearings.

Yea i get what you are saying bloo. Ill have to get the cam out and see what the bearings look like. Is it feasible to replace cam bearings with the engine in?

One trick that works good for plastics is super glue and baking soda. Lay a little glue down and sprinkle baking soda on the seam. It sets the glue instantly and you can keep layering until you have support built up. Its as hard as a rock, learned it from a luthier. Ive used it on motorcycle side covers with good success

Yea I really want to do as little as possible to just try and remedy the tick. Im pretty sure it was coming from cyl 5. The pitted lifter was on number 4. Its worth a shot to try and keep it together. I have too many long term projects. Ill get the lifters soaking and see what i find

So i just bought a 63 running and driving project that had a lifter tick. Changed the oil and drove it a few days with no change. Decided to check it out and found some wear on the rocker shafts and definitely the feet. One valve has an indent in the top of the stem, and the last lifter i pulled was pitted pretty good. The cam is worn but not damaged to an unusable extent by the pitted lifter. The car ran Good otherwise, im basically doctoring what i found and trying to quiet the tick and just drive it for a bit until i decide to pull it and do a rebuild. my plan is installing new lifters( i know its a gamble) and grinding down the indent in the valve stem as flat as i can, and maybe replacing the feet on the rockers. My questions are what is a recommended source for lifters? I was thinking nailheadbuick.com or oldbuickparts but ive dealt with neither an im open to suggestions. two- can you still find just the press in feet for the rockers? or should i just bite the bullet and get new assemblies. and third- how much wear can exist before the lifters reach their fully extended limit and cant take up slack? Just wondering if i take some material off the valve stem plus the wear in the feet, if im at risk. i know this is not the proper course of action and i should just tear it out and do everything but i just want to try and enjoy it before it gets torn down indefinitely. Things tend to snowball and you end up in a two year restoration. also the pitted lifter and the valve damage were on opposite sides of the motor, not the same valve/cam lobe. thanks for any advice/ideas