Quote Originally Posted by RS8 View Post
I do not think you can easily know which follower is bad, by just squeezing them together.
Because if the valves are open on 1 cylinder, then there is pressure there, so then the oil is squeezed out of these followers if the engine is switched off and stands for a while.


In the same way, you can now with a pair of pliers or in a vice you can compress those that are hard so the oil seeps out and then it becomes as soft as these you think are bad.

When I disassembled my engine, I pushed everyone together to get out of the old oil and then every follower became soft.
But if there is debris in the hole, it will not be filled with new oil, so try to check this.
I appreciate these thoughts and have been contemplating the same situation...the only thing that leaves me suspicious on this area is one of the 3 on the intake was still firm, but I totally agree that this could have been under load when shut down (valves open on the intake) and could have done a slow leak down which is not unusual. I do get a pretty good knock on rare occasions on a very cold start for about 20-30 seconds in this area, so hoping for the best when replacing all 3 on this cylinder....not too bad for $100 to try it out, but $1200 to do all 40 is nuts!

Hoping to have some time to work on it this afternoon and I'll focus on checking into these further as you suggest!