Chris White

And then you will find out that the new lifters aren’t made as well as the old lifters. The new OEM lifters have a fairly high failure rate…..

So there is no good solution! Buying all new sounds like the way to go but I would prefer a good used lifter to some of the new ones I have been getting lately.

RPHARRIS

So if OEM lifters fail all the time and INAs fail 100% of the time, is there another option? Someone ought to make one of those hitler videos about our lifters (like the one about the gtr transmission).

On a serious note, two of these lifters are completely solid ...like "stuck." I can't compress them with all of my might ...and that's a lot of might. Are they ok? It would seem to me that they will be stuck fully pumped up and the valve may never close.

KuHL 951

I have a can of spare lifters in clean oil I sort out like you did. There are a few that take an act of God to depress like you say. I always fear that they will round off a lobe but if the faces are not galled there's a very good chance they are good. You can hit the questionable ones with compressed oil into the side hole after a good solvent soak. I then lay them on there sides in oil with the hole up. If they remain soft after that just dump them as they will ruin your day!

RPHARRIS

Houston, we have a BIG problem. I just got the cam tower off and all of the lifters are in PERFECT shape. What's going on here??

RPHARRIS

Should I pull the head? (I saw a video of a 944 making a similar noise, turned out it had a broken valve seat) It's about time for a new headgasket so maybe this is the time to do it.

Rock

I think those lifters are probably pretty good.

If I let my 951 engine sit for a week or so, it sounds like that on startup. I replaced my lifters with the ones from my first N/a which were all very strong and have ~80,000 on them. I still get lifter tick sometimes. Takes letting it idle to get them to quiet down, then I have to go do some slightly spirited driving to get them to shush all of the way.

Dont know why this is. Ive heard that Mahle oil filters have some sort of check valve in them to keep the oil from completly loosing its prime while sitting for a while. Since i usually get the Puralator oil filters from like Autozone, which dont have a check valve, I picked up a Mahle and havent heard it come back yet.

^^^ Although it could just be coincadence. This info about the oil filter could be flat our wrong and just bad information.

Rock

Welcome to my world! Like I said, ive had this problem for a while lol. If I drive it real hard, and slide past the 3000 mark on the oil change, they will even click after spirited driving. 2 sets of lifters too, both were in good shape.

Sorry for the double post.

EDIT- Its not the head on my car either. The head was rebuilt within the last 15,000.

RPHARRIS

Very strange indeed. My car has never done this before so naturally I was alarmed. I have a Mahle oil filter FWIW.

Sounds to me like you might want to try some thicker oil if you haven't already. And perhaps that ATF trick to clear some gunk out of your oil passages. ...you've probably already tried both though, that's how it is with these cars.

I think I'm gonna pull the head. I had the manifold off before this happened so maybe a bolt or something found its way into one of the ports. Oil Pressure was perfect so I'm guessing that everything is fine in the bottom end.

Rock

Well youre already there to pull the head. Just unbolt the headers and head studs basically. I usually run 20w-50. Ive been trying to combat this for a while with no cure yet. Ive changed a few things on the engine and it seems to have gone away.

I had a kinked oil line at the oil cooler, and the car was running ridiculously hot under the hood. I replaced the line and cooled things down a bit so we will see.

blown 944

look at the valve springs and the height of the valves. Anything abnormal??

Yea.... at this point pulling the head is probably a wise choice.

blown 944

You know one other quick thought is that the clutch fork could be making strange noises. I wish I would have mentioned this before now...my bad.

However, maybe you can remember if you had pushed the pedal in to eliminate this as a potential.

Or if you push it in now, does it feel like it is bled right to the top ??

RPHARRIS

It's not the clutch, the sound persisted both in and out of gear with the clutch in and out. All that's left to pull the head is to remove the intake manifold and the header to crossover bolts. My headgasket is 24 years old so replacing it can't really hurt I'm really amazed at the great condition of all the internals I've encountered so far. The lifters look and feel like they've never been inside of an engine. Both me and the PO are oil changing fanatics. I doubt the car has ever gone more than 3000 miles without a change.

RPHARRIS

Alright everything is set to take the head off. I removed the nuts on the head studs but I'm too much of a metrosexual queer to get under the car and undo the crossover to header bolts. Kuhl, Elk Grove isn't that far away, wanna come help a brother out? Just Kidding, I'll probably hit those bolts tomorrow ...but if the wind is as good as it was today I'm gonna take a day off and take out my boat. I'll post pics of the bores and pistons as soon as I get a chance.

F***** so much for taking the car out the other night (when the noise started) as you can see in the video, I had hastily wired up the new IAT because I was so eager to go for a drive... One of these days, all this money and hard work will pay off. So far, all I have is a 13 second 1/4 mile to show for myself but I swear this car has way more in it!

I find it amazing that I've done so much work on this car that absolutely nothing phases me at this point. Aside from bottom end of the engine, I can't think of a single nut or bolt that I haven't turned at some point the 4 years I have owned this thing. Prior to owning this car, the only automotive work I had ever done was piecing a nitrous kit together for my 96' Jetta and replacing a front control arm and tie rod on that thing after I nailed a curb when one of the headlights was out ... rim was entirely separated from the vehicle and 350 bucks later it was back on the road. So far on the 951 I've done:

Entire suspension overhaul with new struts, shock, springs, and torsion bars.
New Engine Mounts
New Header Gaskets
New Turbocharger
New Radiator
New Exhaust
New Engine Management
Soon to be New Camshaft
Soon to be new main and rod bearings

At this point, pretty much anything that breaks is my fault

RPHARRIS

...forgot new shifter bushing.
...and soon to be new headgasket ...perhaps also new valve guides and seals

I guess the one thing I haven't done is new clutch but only because that's the one thing that hasn't broken yet.

Chris White

way to jinks yourself!