Super Dave

I have a 86 944 turbo I drive it about 2000 miles a year. I have been driving it regulerly for the last couple of months. Lately it has been sitting in the garage and I have been moving it in and out every other day to do work in the garage. Then all of a sudden the lifters started clacking bad. I used my stethoscope and its the noise coming from the area of cylinders 3 and 4. I have 3 to 4 bar oil pressure at idle. What I have done so far is pour ATF then changed the oil with a Qt of Marvel oil. I have always had success with these high detergent oils but not this time. Any ideas?

Thank you
David M

zoltan944

you have 3-4 bar at idle when you first start the car?
thats not right. get a heavier weight oil in there

333pg333

Sounds like the oil is too light a weight combined with the car being still for long periods and the oil draining out of the top end/lifters. Does it go away after a while?

xsboost90

when a car sits alot or is apart for rebuild the lifters drain most of the oil out of them. Ive had cars that clicked for awhile after rebuilt until they finally pumped up fully. Sometimes it takes a good rev to make them do it. What weight oil do you have in it? I would make sure you have at least 15w40 in there unless you live in alaska or somewhere.

Super Dave

I put fresh castrol 20w 50 in it. Thas probably the thickest I am going to find. I let it run for about 10 minutes and that I longer than it should take for them to pump up in my estamation. I do agree that 3 to 4 is low on the pressure but thats the way it is right now. Its weird why the lifters closest to the oil feed to the cam are not pumping up but the front ones are. I have been planning a cam housing gasket and front seal r & r for some time but sure wanted to get past the problem before removing the cam housing. I really hate to get new lifters at $65 each.

xsboost90

seriously ive had cars that would not pump up after an hour of idling and driving around the block. Finally i gave it a good rev and they quieted right up.

333pg333

20w/50 is good weight.

Super Dave

ok, changed out lifters for cyl 3 and 4 with other lifters that where not knocking when that motor last ran. 3 is a little quiter but 4 is still knocking all the way. You would think that that would be the last cyl to knock since that is where the oil psi feed is located from the block. I guess new at $68 each is my only option? comments welcome............

944obscene

Join the club. I've got another car with REALLY BAD lifter tap. Horrid sound, and I need to fix the damn thing. Nearly everyone at work that has heard my car has asked when its going to blow up. Not a Porsche though (thank God).

I'd foot the cash and let my local specialist have a date with it.

chilibluepepper

Dave - FWIW, I have a set of lifters available that have just a few minutes use since new. These are left over from my aborted 3L project. PM me if you are interested.

eniac

Sadly there was a time I had other things to take care of and my car sat for about 7 months half torn apart. When I got it back together it had awful lifter noise. I shut it off and checked everything I could check then tried it again. It took about 30-45 minutes of total running/driving time for them to quiet down.
I use only 20w50.

Super Dave

FIXED!!!!!!!!!!! After talking to a mechanic freind over at Lamborghini Dallas he gave me a tip that I probably would not have done on my own. He had me drain the oil and refill the motor with ATF. I ran the motor for about 30 minutes then drained the ATF and refilled it with new oil and a filter. The ATF cleanded the insides and it stopped clicking immediatly. I have since driven the car for about a hour.

944obscene

I'm doing this.

Caboose

You ran the motor with ATF in it? Explain more please. How long did you run it? Just idling? Did you drive it or something?!

Super Dave

Caboose, That would be a NEGATIVE on the driving it. First of all I have always thrown a quart of ATF or Marvel Mystery Oil in the car as the oil level goes down between oil changes. That type of oil is a very high detergent oil and keeps things cleaned out. But I would have never thought of running just that through it. During the atempt to get the this problem resolved I did put as much as two quarts in the car still not driving it. Already having it up on stands I drained all the oil out and put in 6 quarts of nothing but ATF ran it for 30 minutes. The lifter ticking never stoped during that time but my Lambo buddy told me the vescosity of the ATF would do that. I then drained the ATF and filled up the motor with 6 quarts of 20w-50 Castrol High Millage. The lifters ticked for about 10 seconds like they always had then quite as a mouse.