Rebuilding Hydraulic Lifters

Edit: Please don't install them full of oil and purged of all air like I show in the video. Do this to check that they're sealing, but then remove the extra oil so that they're springy. They will pump up within a few seconds of startup anyway. This saves the valves from not closing all the way due to a tall lifter.

This video shows the disassembly, cleaning, and rebuilding of hydraulic valve lifters. These belong to a VW 16V head but many are similar. A couple of these could be compressed by hand when they came out of the head. I decided to rebuild all of them. This takes a long time so you might want to consider just buying new ones, but if you have patience and don't mind the work, it's very rewarding.