Stuck lifter or something

[Cuong Nguyen]

The other day I was having an issue where I think my lifter was stuck or something. I was driving on the highway and as I was pulling off, it was very audible. Loud and repetitious depending on the RPMs. Then as I drove further, at lower speeds it went away.

 

Any thoughts as to what happened or a cause? I unfortunately do not have my oil pressure gauge hooked up so have no idea if oil pressure was an issue.

[Citron]

Could have been an oil pressure issue. I had a Hyundai Elantra for a commuter car a few years ago and whenever the oil would get low the lifters would tap. Check your oil level.

[Bunchie]

And if it's low, add some tranny fluid instead of oil. The tranny fluid should clean any guck that may be causing the lifter to stick. The tranny fluid won't hurt anything in the engine. Source: Old mechanic's trick.

[Cuong Nguyen]

Catch is this was a motor I rebuilt with new lifters. I had the lifters speced and primed before it sat for 5 years.

[Bunchie]

Sometimes a lifter will collapse; meaning the fluid(oil)contained within it, essentially leaks out because of the pressure of the rest of the valve train pushing on in. You mentioned it sat for 5 years. In that amount of time,easily one of those lifters could have "collapsed": how long has it been back in operation and "running"?

 

By using the tranny fluid, it may be a simple way of getting the required fluid back into the lifter WITHOUT having take half ur engine apart to get to the culprit lifter. Try this method first before delving into more advanced troubleshooting. If ur explanation is correct, the "tapping" DEcreases at low RPM's, which should mean the lifter is not being "hammered" by the cam's slower revolutions.

 

All the tension in the valve train is produced by the valve spring itself: that may also be the problem. If you used the original valve springs for the rebuild, one of them may be failing or have failed. Unless you had actually checked all of them, you probably made the assumption that they were all good (understandable-they don't fail very often).

 

Depending on your mechanical skill level, use the "Stethoscope" method to determine on which side the suspect valve is, pop off that valve cover and check for any obvious issues: cam, springs or anything that may not look kosher.

 

Replacing the spring is relatively straight forward but there are certain specific tools you will need. Try the tranny fluid first and see if there is any change. It won't happen immediately so run it gently for a day on so and see what the results are. Good luck and advise of results. Cheers, V.

[Cuong Nguyen]

Sometimes a lifter will collapse; meaning the fluid(oil)contained within it, essentially leaks out because of the pressure of the rest of the valve train pushing on in. You mentioned it sat for 5 years. In that amount of time,easily one of those lifters could have "collapsed": how long has it been back in operation and "running"?

 

By using the tranny fluid, it may be a simple way of getting the required fluid back into the lifter WITHOUT having take half ur engine apart to get to the culprit lifter. Try this method first before delving into more advanced troubleshooting. If ur explanation is correct, the "tapping" DEcreases at low RPM's, which should mean the lifter is not being "hammered" by the cam's slower revolutions.

 

All the tension in the valve train is produced by the valve spring itself: that may also be the problem. If you used the original valve springs for the rebuild, one of them may be failing or have failed. Unless you had actually checked all of them, you probably made the assumption that they were all good (understandable-they don't fail very often).

 

Depending on your mechanical skill level, use the "Stethoscope" method to determine on which side the suspect valve is, pop off that valve cover and check for any obvious issues: cam, springs or anything that may not look kosher.

 

Replacing the spring is relatively straight forward but there are certain specific tools you will need. Try the tranny fluid first and see if there is any change. It won't happen immediately so run it gently for a day on so and see what the results are. Good luck and advise of results. Cheers, V.

It's been running fine as I've been driving it for almost 800 miles now. It was just odd that all of a sudden it was loud rapid tapping/ticking for a few minutes and went away. I may pull the valve train off again and check things over again and see the cause. I'm going to install the oil pressure gauge later this week so I can monitor how the oil flow is.

[Bunchie]

Any reoccurrences?? Did you try the tranny fluid?

[Cuong Nguyen]

So installed the oil pressure gauge a week or so ago and have low oil pressure. Decided to drop the pan to inspect the bearings. Bearings show oil starvation and I have a good amount of metal shavings in the bottom of the pan. I posted more photos in my ride thread. I do not really want to rebuild it again so I'm going to see if I can salvage the crank and engine.