clicking lifters

I am going through the same thing. Let me tell you how this goes. First you replace the lifters, then you say, there was a worn lobe on the cam. Then you may as well rebuild the heads. By the time you put it back together, you spin a rod bearing because of the extra compression. If I were you and had 100g on the motor. I would pull it out and rebuild the whole thing with new moderen parts. I sent my spare engine out to be stroked. I had the mushy lifter syndrome too. I tightend it down and it quit tickin', then the next day I started the car... the valve would not close all the way and it huffed..... One thing leads to another, rebuild it... Bill 1362

> Is a "soft" lifter a good indication that it is not pumping up properly?

Not really. It just means it has beld the oil out. They can do that and
still build pressure once the oil pump starts pumping.

> I am thinking I have some bad lifters, and need to replace all of them.

With 100K on the engine, you'll want to replace the cam too. Putting new
lifters on a worn flat tappet cam can be done but is risky with low ZDDP motor oils.
Have you been into your engine? Does it still have the aluminum timing gear,
failure prone 2 piece valves and original valve stem seals. If so, you'll
want to replace all of that.

Dan Jones (in Florissant, Missouri not too far from you).

Well, I replaced all of the lifters and this has eliminated the clicking noises I had. The old lifters looked ok, but some of them were starting to get a bit of a "dish" to them in the base. A couple of them could be collapsed easily.
I used the turkey pan and the end rail gaskets. I can see the end rail gaskets are starting to push out. I should have just used a bead of silicone, as I have read in the posts. I'll see if I get any leaks.
I also removed the deck lid to get some more working space. This worked out real good, and it was easy to remove the lid. I could even get to the valve cover screw by the dipstick tube without climbing onto the transaxle!

Paul, I'm glad to hear that worked for ya'. Lifters and cams really should be changed together. Remember my previous post? Your gonna make more power and stress the bottom end more. Get ready for more...Bill 1362

Paul, if the lifter are beginning to get a dish in them on their base, the cam's lobe are most likely compromised as well and the new lifters may accellerate the lobe wear. At the very leats, I would pull the valve covers and endeavor to measure the lift on each pushrod or rocker arm to determine the severity of the wear. If you can measure any differences in lift between them, time to change the cam and, unfortunately, lifters again as well.