Yea i have brand new lifters for my 5.0..roller lifters..and someone told me its a good idea to soak them in oil for alittle before u install them? to get the air out of them? true??
I have heard of immersing them in oil and then using a pushrod to try to depress the lifter several times. It supposedly makes them suck up oil and be primed. I haven't tried it, so I don't know for sure.
What I would be sure to do is to pre-oil the engine by turning the oil pump CCW until oil pressure came up before I was ready to start the engine.
Many people mistakenly believe that hydraulic lifters must be soaked in oil overnight and be hand pumped up with a pushrod before installing into a new engine, however this is not necessary. In fact, this could cause the lifter to act as a "solid" and prevent obtaining proper preload. What is very necessary is the priming of the entire engine's oil system before starting up a new engine for the first time. This is done by turning the oil pump with a drill motor to force oil throughout the entire engine. Crane Cams offers oil pump primers for Chevrolet and Ford engines.