tapping
 

just did an oil change. 10w40 amsoil. mahle filter. engine is tapping, even when warm. it seems that most, or all, of the lifters are tapping. its not loud. i've noticed it tapping before, but it seems a bit more prominent, now. it does not sound like a bottom end knock. any ideas?

What is your oil pressure?

May need to replace the oil pressure regulator with the later single piece unit. It's several pieces actually. Replacing the VW type spring and pistion is the best thing you can do.

ok socal, you have me trumped... (by the way, i think you are the coolest, along with several other pelican members).

oil pressure is splendid. 5 bar when cold, just over 3 bar when warm.

oil pressure regulator? where is it? what is it? how do i find it? how do i replace it?

Don't need too if you are getting 3 bars at a hot idle. One of the tricks to "fixing" noisy lifters is the half can of automatic trans fluid a day or so before you change the oil. Seems the high detergent level will do some cleaning on the lifters.

Otherwise it's new cam and lifter time. Nothing lasts forever. Drat!

Seen a picture of a lifter cut in half somewhere. Might have been on this BBS. Suggest a search limited to this part of the Pelican forums.

thanks, socal.

i did look at my lifters when i had the cylinder head off. the mating surfaces to the camshaft looked perfect, nice and shiny, no rough areas at all.

is there anything i can do now that i have nice new oil in the engine?

Thicker oil. Ear plugs.

But a taping noise at the front of the cam kind of where the timing belt cover/dist. is could be a loose cam gear. Have to pull off the rotor and check the socket head bolt. Worth the time to check.

actually, the tapping seems pretty even from all the valves. there is a louder tapping that may be an exhaust leak. i haven't retorqued the header nuts since i put it all back together.

guess what... tapping is quieter. must have taken a bit for the new oil to work into the lifters (dino vs synthetic). who knows. i'll keep an eye (ear) on it.

Is the oil semi synthetic? - when i bought my 944cab last october they told me the tapping on startup was due to the thin oil running back down into the sump etc - dissappears after a couple of minutes.Tempted to put mineral oil in mine but change it more regularly.

oil is full-synthetic.

i tightened the header nuts, most of the sound went away. not surprising, being that i only put the thing back together about 3 weeks ago. most of the nuts went about half a turn tighter.

this one?