TangoYankee

Recently, I got my engine fully squared away after replacing the water pump and drive belts. A few days ago, I bled the coolant system and ran the car, but quickly became aware of a fairly loud clicking.

Upon further inspection, it sounds like one of the lifters. Having not changed the oil yet after getting the car, I was hoping that it was just gummed up. I ran Amsoil engine cleaner through the oil, but got no results.

After draining, I filled up with some cheap oil I got for the sole purpose of cleaning out the engine and mixed it with a bit of ATF. That didn't work either, it was still clicking.

I assume this means that one of my lifters is colapsed? Does anybody have any tricks to make pulling apart the cam tower any easier?

Thanks!

mel_t_vin

Re: cheap oil...what viscosity? Where is the car located?

snb13

Make sure the oil is thick enough- 20w50. If it's too cold right now where you live for that go 10w40.

TangoYankee

Right now, I'm running 5W-40. By cheap oil, I meant some synthetic I picked up at Autozone, not my special order Amsoil.

Running the Amsoil hasn't seemed to change much either, though I couldn't run it for long because I figured out that my distributor rotor was broken.

Someone else I talked to suggested running the car and doing intervals of higher revving (about 3500prm) while running it. They had said that the higher oil pressure could help push the new oil through the lifter. Could that be the case?

jspearin

If you do go the route of removing the cam tower to service the lifters do yourself a favor (I learned this first hand). Purchase yourself a quality 6" hex bit socket for removing the hex bolts inside of the cam tower. My first tool was not what I would consider quality and the end of the tool broke off inside of a hex bolt, inside of the cam tower. Turned what should have been a weekend job into a 2 month ordeal.

TangoYankee

Thank you! If I have to I certainly will, as pulling the hex bolts out is certainly what scares me most.

V2Rocket

If the car has been sitting for a while the lifters likely bled down completely.
It can take up to 30 minutes of god-awful noisy running to get them pumped up again...

Bono

Don't know if this will help/make you be a little more patient before digging into engine. I have a '89 S2 that is show quality with only 45k miles on it. Sometimes the lifters make noise and sometimes they don't. Always ran this way for previous owner. I also own that exact same model of S2 that is my track/race car. Again with this car, the lifters make noise from time to time. So my recommendation is to check with someone local in the know before taking the engine apart.

TangoYankee

Thanks, guys! I haven't run it on the road yet after putting the Amsoil in, so I suppose I'll wait to put some miles on it before checking again. I was just extremely paranoid that a stuck lifter could cause damage within the engine.

[Edit:] I've just contacted the previous owner as well and he said that he would often hear a "ticking" in the engine occasionally. (He wasn't a big car guy.) He also said that the mechanics he had worked on it never mentioned it, so yeah, that makes me feel a lot better.

[Edit again:] Turns out what he was hearing wasn't the lifters, but the old water pump bearings that would click and squeak. I sent him a video and he had no idea about what I was talking about.]

Would Tappet Stop Noise oil additive be a good alternative if driving it for a while doesn't wield any good outcomes?

till_that_day

My 8v makes quite a bit of lifter noise after sitting for a month or more. I have always idled it for about 10 to 15 minutes given it a couple revsand it goes right away.

TangoYankee

Th problem is that it hasn't gone right away. I've ran the car many times as of now. I've idled it for half an hour, then taken it through the rev range and it still is not going away.

eharvin

am relative newbie to these cars but I had similar experience recently and can concur with other posters' comments to have a little patience before digging into the engine.

Owned my '82 for about a year now and a few months ago scared the crap out of me by suddenly one day ticking like crazy right from startup. No warning previously.

Expected the worst, went to my mechanic (who's owned a few himself) and he decided first to do a very thorough engine clean (don't know what he used) and then complete refill of fresh oil at correct viscosity.

Result was it then ran quieter than it ever had, and it was good before!

Came back once for 5 minutes after I was away for a month and it was sitting in the garage... gritted my teeth and let it warm up... back to quiet again

In the end, it definitely can't hurt anything to put the right oil in, so try that first before opening the toolbox!

His opinion by the way was that using best oil possible is way better than any additive could do... oil that he drained from mine was clean but not right.