will do.... hope I can check it all out in a few days

 

I Found the culprit.... #1 exhaust lifter collapsed !!!!!
Now my question is, would it hurt if I changed all the lifters or should I just change that one ???

 

Congratulations! Glad you isolated the problem. Sorry it involves the valve train.
Lifters and cam shafts have, what I would describe as, a marriage. In tech terms, when a new engine is "broken in", the cam lobes and lifters create individually unique wear patterns. Replacing one or more lifters disrupts the symbiotic marriage developed between the cam and the original lifters which could lead to failures.
Before I give you my recommendation, I must ask if you've confirmed the lifter collapsed. You see, what sometimes happens is a cam lobe can go flat; I had that happen on my #8 cylinder. Actually, both the intake and exhaust lobes went flat for that cylinder which was really weird – I could understand one lobe but two that aren't even next to each other… That reminds me, you may want to hook up an oil pressure gauge to confirm your oil pump is producing enough pressure. The #1 exhaust lifter is the farthest from the engine oil pump so, if it failed or the lobe failed, it could be because it wasn't getting sufficient oil.
Anyway, whatever approach you take, you'll have to pull the intake manifold. Remove the offending lifter and look at the bottom where it makes contact with the cam. It should be really obvious if it's been riding on a lobe that's been worn flat; think harsh metal-to-metal grinding. If that's the case, you'll need to replace the cam and all the lifters.
If the lobe is ok, you should rebuild the lifter, not replace it. If I were to rebuild a used lifter, I would look into cannibalizing a known good lifter for the internal parts. Put those good internal parts into the body of your used lifter.
With that said, if this were my car, I would take some other factors into consideration when deciding on an approach to solving this problem, such as the engine's mileage and my ultimate goal with this car. If I were to make this my gently driven fair weather cars-n-coffee cruise car, I would just rebuild the bad lifter, assuming that's the problem. If I needed this to be my daily driver on a budget, I would replace the cam and lifters; you don't know if any of the other lifters may give out within a couple thousand miles. If I could afford a once-and-done solution, I would rebuild the engine.
Hope this helps.
Keep us posted.

 

pulled the lifter... it's mushroomed bad.!!! than I but a new lifter in and cranked it over a few seconds the rocker arm barely moves. SOOOOOOO I guess it's time to put cam & lifters in it Would these be okay to use / Chevy 283 305 327 307 350 400 Melling STOCK CCS2 Cam Camshaft+Lifters Kit 1-400 | eBay
preciate all the help zucchi

 

Total bummer. I've been there, done that. Please allow me to share some wisdom:

If you have vacuum operated accessories (AC, cruise control, power brake booster), stick with a stock cam. Going with a warmer cam will reduce manifold vacuum at idle and adversely affect the accessories. I learned this the hard way. It's very tempting to put a bigger cam into these malaise era cars in order to up their power. If you want to do that, you may consider installing an auxiliary vacuum canister, perhaps even a vacuum pump. For reference, please see this video:


Good luck.

 

any suggestions on what stock cam and lifters to use

 

The only time I had a stock engine in my car was when I bought it back in 1984.

I would check with manufacturers like CompCams or Crane Cams, maybe call their tech support line.

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...55865&pt=15058

 

According to the factory parts manual, the part number for the camshaft in your 350 V8 is 3896929. You can cross reference the number, for instance...
https://www.npdlink.com/product/cams...3896929/107897

 

Yes, that's a good kit.