I have tried everything to stop the tikking, nothing really helped, the main thing is that if your car at any condition is running without the tikking this means NOTHING IS BROKEN!!!

Therefore all problems are caused by sludge/ dirt and even more carbon on the valve stems. This can be cleaned without a mechanic with petrol additives, I used two cans, the first step whas flushing:

FORTÉ ADVANCED FORMULA MOTOR FLUSH
Advanced Formula Motor Flush has been specifically formulated to combat modern motoring issues caused by the adverse affect of extended oil drain periods.

During the long interval between oil drains, crankcase acids are produced. If left within the system when the oil is changed, these acids immediately go to work breaking down the new oil leading to the creation of lacquers and varnishes which are deposited on the oil system components such as Hydraulic Valve Lifters, Variable Valve Timing Systems and Piston Rings. These components work within very tight tolerances and any sticking due to the deposits in the oil system results in inefficient operation of the system and poor driveability.

Neutralises crankcase Acids.
Removes lacquer, varnish, sludge and insoluble deposits from the crankcase.
Frees sticking Variable Valve Timing systems, Hydraulic Valve Lifters and Piston Rings.
Stabilises cylinder compression restoring lost engine power.
Cleans engines internally and provides anti-wear protection.
Cleans oilways ensuring oil flow to critical moving parts.
Keeps new oil cleaner for longer

Second step whas Forte Top end treatment and finally Gas treatment.

This resulted in an absolute quit (all conditions) engine, have driven it for 300 000 miles with no tikking, sold it, it now drives in Cairo (dessert of North Africa)

:bowdown: FORTE :bowdown: LINK: http://www.forteuk.co.uk/Home.htm :bowdown:

 

I have ticking in my 90 Coupe L 5Spd and i use 5W30 because of the cold weather. I live in Maine and we don't have pleasant winters. I mean my lifter noise goes away after my car warms up. But i don't know my car has 204K miles on it. How much would new Lifters cost? anyone know!

 

heavy weight oil & cold temps?

Good for you using 5 weight oil in cold weather. Earlier in the zombie thread someone mentioned heavy weight oil. in cold weather this is a nono. I want 5w-35

 

If memory serves me, it's quite an involved process... And since they're hydraulic lifters they can only be replaced, not repaired. I don't know about a price though (probably a few hundred?)--Gabe? Pnoye? Anyone?

 

I replaced the lifters in my first engine, probably about 10 years ago. I can't remember the cost, but if memory serves me, the lifters alone were close to$1,000.00. IIRC, I think it ran me about $1300.00 total for everything. Hopefully it's a little less expensive by now, but it's probably still pretty painful.

I put another 150k miles on that engine (270k total) and it only started ticking again right at the end. Unfortunately, I found that it was ticking because I was running about 5 lbs of oil pressure. I suspect my main bearings were shot, but I never found out as I lucked into a sweet deal on another engine.

I've never bothered confirming this, but I was told by my mechanic (former Acura parts manager) that they redesigned the lifters in 89 or 90 to make the oil passages larger in an attempt to alleviate this common problem.

 

Yeah with the age of our cars, replacing the lifters is pretty cost prohibitive...

As Jerry mentioned, there are remedies available that work awesome for some, or just finding a cheap, low mileage replacement engine is another option...either way, its something that we are all going to have to face someday...

For the record though....Headers sure helped out with the ticking....silence is golden

 

Yeah with the age of our cars, replacing the lifters is pretty cost prohibitive...

For the record though....Headers sure helped out with the ticking....silence is golden

If headers made your car quieter, you had and exhaust leak, they can sound like a tick especially the closer it is to the head.

 

Gabe, I'd be curious how those headers quieted down the ticking. Doesn't engine noise generally increase with something like that?

 

Eventhough I've had my Legend for five years or so, I'm just now learning how to deal with it like I have to deal with my old MB diesels. I was unaware I was goin' all zombie on a thread. But anywho....someone mentioned oil pumps weakening. Are oil pumps routinely replaced at some point? I'm sure the discharge pressure can be tested...it's probably in the manual. Would replacing a weak oil pump lengthen engine life? Is it crazy expensive/difficult to do?

Thanks

azbob
'87 Legend 189K miles
wicked bone stock

 

It would be simple to check the oil pressure at the sending unit; it's located on the oil cooler housing that's part of where the filter connects.

Replacing an oil pump isn't part of any scheduled maintenance and would be a pretty extensive undertaking as it would require removing the crank pulley, timing belt, oil pan (probably) etc. The pumps are pretty much bulletproof; I've never heard of one going bad, even though I'm sure it happens. One thing is that the first sign of low oil pressure will be continuously noisy lifters, so it's a good idea for a person to rule it out before he goes out and buys an expensive set of lifters.

 

Well the main thing I have heard about is the oil pan getting dented dead in the center...the oil pump is located there, and a dent in the oil pan will restrict the pumps flow which leads to oil starvation

 

True, the pick-up tube terminates there, and there is very little clearance, so a dent in that part of the pan is bad news. Not to mention the fact that there is a screen on the pick-up which can get clogged after a couple of hundred thousand miles, even if it has been well-maintained. Bottom line is that if you have constant lifter noise, it's worth checking the oil pressure and, if it's very low, then drop the pan and take a look. It is pretty likely to be either a blocked pick-up tube, shot main bearings, or the oil pump itself.

 

I had success with sea foam in quieting lifters. This was for a 99 Mustang V6. The lifters were very noisy till the engine warmed up. I added 8 oz of sea foam with 5 qts of oil and within a few hundered miles the lifter noise went away. I did another oil change since I didn't want to run the sea foam very long and the lifters are still quiet. I'm assuming there was sludge clogging up an injector and the sea foam cleaned it out.

 

I meant to say a lifter not injector.

 

No it wasnt an exhaust leak...just regular ol' G1 ticking...

It's been guessed that the freer flowing exhaust has relieved some of the back pressure and thus the exhaust valves dont have to work as hard...

Interesting hypothesis...

 

I asked my Acura mechanic wtf can I do to get rid of the engine tick, like many others mine only ticks for about the first minute after a cold start, then goes away...Mechanic said it would be like $1600 to fix because there's 16 of something in the engine and he'd need to replace all of 'em because you can't tell which one is bad by looking and they run $100 each...I said i'd live w/it, lol.

 

There are actually 24 lifters and I thought they were about $50 each.

To replace them you need to remove the timing belt and cam shafts, so some labor costs as well.

If it only ticks when cold I would try cleaning them out. There are various options including.

1. 8 oz of Sea Foam mixed with 5 quarts of oil

2. 1 quart of ATF mixed with 4 quarts of oil

3. 1 quart of Marvel Mystery Oil mixed with 4 quarts of oil

as well as other products.

In any case run the additive for a few hundred miles and change the oil and filter.

 

i used 10w 30 and this stuff called CD2. now the ticking only comes back wen ots time to change it.

 

Dangit sons, I've been watching this thread for days and not one of y'all even mentioned adjusting your exhaust tappets. WTF!!?? It's an adjustable thing for a reason! Factory method is Loosen while cold, tighten until contact, then tighten 1.5 turns more. Of course I left out the TDC part - look at the manual under our stickies. The lifters have a little spring loaded valve just like a grease fitting. They CAN get air inside, especially the exhaust which are not vertical. Air can bleed out the intakes easier because they're vertical. Air inside changes the lift dimension - so adjust them!!! (could you tell I wrote that with tough love?) Different fluid viscosity will change both pressure from the oil pump and flow at the lifters and thus the ability to bleed the air out. So will any detergent and special solvent. But BEWARE of special low friction additives because it changes the oil pump sealing and thus its ability to pump and also ring sealing and thus compression.

 

I NEED INFO ON THIS!! GOT A BAD TICK, IT'S GOT TO BE BAD TAPPET OR ROCKER. anyone got a good laman's way of testing the tappets? i see the dipping them in oil and pushing the testball but i don't get how they're constantly pressurized. but the FSM tells you to bleed them in oil. anyone know more about Tappets?

 

I just had an idea! You could try adjusting th exhaust valve too! Do a search for exhaust valves and youll see that we have mentioned and discussed it before in the past...

Of course if you do use some kind of cleaner and they stop...I would imagine that mechanical adjustment is not your problem...

 

Wow that sure is from a while ago lol...here in the states, Seafoam is available at pretty much any auto parts store....

Let me let you guys know one thing that I have found over time however...(I spoke with Ferjie about this at the last CrazyBlueCivic meet)

Using Seafoam, and Restore does actually quiet the lifters, however on my older engine, it also seems to dry up (shrink) my seals causing my engine to burn oil after a long red light...

So then I have to use a High Mileage Engine 10w/40 oil that will swell up the seals again (over time) and stop the oil burning....but then the thicker oil brings back the ticking lifters :nono:

SO...quiet lifters with additives/cleaners = Burning oil on cars with already bad seals...

Swollen seals causes no more oil cloud puffs but also = Ticking Lifters :dunno:

In my case...it has gotten the point of a trade off

Also...this evening I left school, and heard some FAINT ticking for a few seconds after startup....I wonder if they may be creeping back...

I'll keep you guys updated...

 

I too have tried several methods but Sea Foam works best; at least with my experience... I've done it twice now and I am happy with the results, although everybody has there own methods of addressing this "lifter tick" issue.

You either cough up some serious cash to properly solve this or band-aid the problem until the engine totally crap out, but as Gabe stated; it's a trade off

 

I too have tried several methods but Sea Foam works best; at least with my experience... I've done it twice now and I am happy with the results, although everybody has there own methods of addressing this "lifter tick" issue.

You either cough up some serious cash to properly solve this or band-aid the problem until the engine totally crap out, but as Gabe stated; it's a trade off

The method I used, although I didn't realize it would help at the time, was using a heavy duty engine oil (HDEO), read: diesel spec'ed oil that was also spec'ed for gasoline engines. The only thing is that it took a real long time for the ticking to go away. Now I just get about 30 seconds or so of ticking on cold start-ups.

Chevron Delo 15w-40 was my choice. Lots detergents and anti-wear additives; at least the anti-waer additives were higher than gasoline spec'ed oils at the time. I read now oil companies are cutting back on the anitwear goodies because of emissions. :fart:

The original intent of using an HDEO was to extend my oil change intervals without going to a synthetic. I figured tractor trailer rigs go huge amounts of miles before dumping their engine oils (of course they usually have luberfiner filters, etc.).

Now I just run regular old Pennzoil 10w-40.

 

Niiiiiice. =] Glad to hear a success story. haha

 

I started to have this little lifter tick upon start up in the morning and also when I left work after letting my car sit for awhile. So when I changed my oil the last time I replaced 1 quart of oil with Lucas oil stabilizer and no more lifter tick. I don't know if that's bad or not but to be quite frank I dont really care. The noise is gone and car seems to run quite good. I have used Lucas in pretty much everything I have had from differentials to manual transmissions to high horsepower 502 c.u. boat motors and it seems to work pretty damn well. I am by know means trying to sell Lucas or anything like that it has just been what I have used.

 

I just changed a BHG and took out the hydraulic lifters/tappets and cleaned them. They were stuck so bad, they could sit in the cleaning fluid all day and still not have any movement! Whatever gets inside them is tough stuff. Someone at the local auto parts said oil companies use parafin wax in engine oil? Before I tried adding Lucas oil stabiliser to Castor high milage oil, and sometimes the liffter ticking would go away but it was always intermittent. I took some tappets out of a car at the junk yard and they were as stuck as mine. After I get my car back together and running I will find out if it helped.

 

To bleed just slowly start leaning the tappet to horizontal position and the oil or any fluid in the tappet will drain from it, then set the tappet on a flat surface table or any flat surface hold it with your fingers by the side and then with your other hand using 2 finger (don't cover any of the holes with your fingers while doing this) press down the round shped part of the tappet, the tappet should go down very easy with out any fluids in it if soes not press down need to soak it down with "mineral spirts" solvent over night then repeat the previous test if still not pressing then tappet is bad and it will need replacement, this tappets are extremly easyly holders of all kind of oil residues that will cause them to fail and do what we all know as "valve ticking" in our cars, i recomend that every time that these tappets are removed they should be cleaned any way possible.
Check this...http://www.acura-legend.com/vbulletin/f2/lifter-noise-fixed-125760/

 

JIM-T, you da man...!

how'd you go about cleaning them??
did you follow the bleeding procedure in the FSM *confused me some*?

 

As far as bleeding I dont really know, maybe someone else can explain how to do it. In the Haynes manual it says, "if you suspect any of the lash adjusters are faulty, take them to the dealer for air bleeding and inspection". Whatever taking the lifters out soaking and ckeaning them and replacing them isnt difficult.

 

Tappet Bleeding

thanx Jim T.

CAR-N... wouldn't that just allow air to get in? in the FSM, it's saying that you bleed the tappet by placing it in a cup of oil and press and 2mm stick down into the top of the tappet til it goes all the way in to it and push down on the test ball at the bottom of the tappet. it says that should release air, and when it's done bubbling, you're done bleeding the tappet.

so, they way you did yours, i'm assuming it worked because, you solved your prob i guess... but i don't get how just turning them horizontal releases all the air and oil??? and then to press the plunger (the round part at the top) while it's on a table.. shouldn't that just allow air to go inside?

and what gets me most of all about these Tappets, is that in the FSM, it shows that the tappet has a 'high-pressure' chamber at the bottom that will release the air when you're bleeding. so how does it pressurize??!!
is natural oil pressure what pressurizes Tappets? or is the FSM literally telling me to let out the air in the Tappet's pressure chamber.
what i really don't get is that i read somewhere along the way that excessive release of that air will create "SINK". where you're rocker does not fully open the valve.

 

thanx Jim T.

CAR-N... wouldn't that just allow air to get in? in the FSM, it's saying that you bleed the tappet by placing it in a cup of oil and press and 2mm stick down into the top of the tappet til it goes all the way in to it and push down on the test ball at the bottom of the tappet. it says that should release air, and when it's done bubbling, you're done bleeding the tappet.

so, they way you did yours, i'm assuming it worked because, you solved your prob i guess... but i don't get how just turning them horizontal releases all the air and oil??? and then to press the plunger (the round part at the top) while it's on a table.. shouldn't that just allow air to go inside?

and what gets me most of all about these Tappets, is that in the FSM, it shows that the tappet has a 'high-pressure' chamber at the bottom that will release the air when you're bleeding. so how does it pressurize??!!
is natural oil pressure what pressurizes Tappets? or is the FSM literally telling me to let out the air in the Tappet's pressure chamber.
what i really don't get is that i read somewhere along the way that excessive release of that air will create "SINK". where you're rocker does not fully open the valve.

This process is just for cleaning and testing of the operation of the tappets, once you had clean them and find out which ones are not working replace the bad tappets then you need to reacharge the tappets before putting back in the head, just follow the instructions in the manual to recharge but for cleaning and testing you can use the what i did it.

 

the way in the manual's tellin me to literally bleed oil into this tap in a cup of oil, pressing down on a checkball. so.. is that what you mean by recharging it? ...but full of oil? here's what i'm not getting.. if it's pressurized, that means it's got air in it. why's the manual telling me to release the air?

or is it supposed to fill up with oil? as in the oil pressure in the engine operates them? so the pressure chamber at the bottom of the tappet is more like a place where junk and air catches?... that can't be right, cuz the tappets are checked after you take them out of the head.


.......
:wtf: is a damn tappet???? heh.

 

^^BUMP^^

 

To my knowledge the lifter become solid or pressurised using the engine oil. When you squeeze the lifter gently the oil comes out, when sudden force is applied it 'locks' the oil in it and is pressurised.
There is no air chamber. You need to soak them in spirits and squeeze them to get the gunk out. When charging them, immerse in oil so that there is no air that can get into them and squeeze the tappet until the air stop coming out so that when it is put into the engine it will already be full of oil and ready to go.