Yes, the lifter is recessed at the point of the inlet hole so it will indeed get oil in either orientation. If the inlet hole is facing down and at or near the valve closed position at rest, I think the lifter can drain out into the oil galley (see the hole in the bottom of the lifter bore). That being the case, it would tick on startup until pressured up. I did take the lifter apart and saw nothing obvious. I did NOT however pressure test it since the procedure was a bit involved so I just replace the lifter(s) - both on #1 cylinder. I'm beginning to think that the lifter was just not holding pressure anyway since I was hearing the tick after oil pump pressured up albeit much softer.

I'm buttoning the engine back up so I will know in a day or two the outcome - and advise.

 

Ya well ... not quite the outcome I was hoping for. After replacing the lifters, she's still ticking. [img alt=""]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img] But the ticking is intermittent. For example, yesterday morning I started it up and was ticking badly and quite loudly and didn't damping after a few seconds as it often does. Later that day, I ran it and no ticking what so ever. Same as the day before. WTF?!

I pulled the valve cover off and watched and listened to the odd-side rockers on startup. Lot's of oil pooling on the low side of the rockers beforehand - evidence that at least oil is getting there - and I watched it flow up from the pushrods. The rockers moved as expected with no unusual vibration or sound. In fact, it confirmed to me the sound is coming from elsewhere in the drivers front upper corner of the engine bay.

As an interesting aside, I was surprised that on a cold start idle it took between 12-25 seconds for oil to begin flowing out the top of the pushrods across the entire valvetrain. I'm seeing > 60 psi on my oil gauge. I would have thought you'd see oil out the pushrods in 1-3 seconds. Regardless, I am leaning now to the opinion that this sound has nothing to do with the valvetrain.

I pulled the a/c compressor out of the circuit with a short serpentine belt (wondering if a bad bearing was the cause); no change.

My current working theory is that this is an exhaust leak - which often sounds like a lifter tick - so I torqued the exhaust manifold bolts a bit more (on a new gasket) but nada. I'm wondering if there is a crack on the body of the manifold somewhere but there's no exhaust evidence on the side of the motor that I can see to confirm this but I may pull it off anyway (easy job) and inspect it more thoroughly. I wanna say I can smell exhaust in the engine bay but not certain (it was windy).

I'm running out of ideas but I think I'll end this thread here (pending any final comments) as the original premise - bad lifters - no longer applies. I'll post another thread if I can get any traction on other fronts.

 

Exhaust leak DOES sound a lot like lifter tick, but, generally, it's pretty predictable..... the intermittent nature of yours makes me wonder about that.....

 

Ya I haven't convinced myself that is the issue yet either. Someone elsewhere mentioned to check the evap purge valve - I'm also looking at that.

 

Noisy PCV valve? Ignition spark jumping to a ground? Try removing the serp belt completely, That will rule out anything it drives.

 

A sound clip would be nice.

 

Any updates on your ticking problem? i’ve recently developed valve train ticking on cold starts, it last maybe 5 seconds and goes away once oil pressure is registered on the gauge.

What weight oil are you running? I’ve been using 5w-30 throughout the colder months but as it’s recently been warming up that thinner oil has been on my mind.

I have a new set of lifters ready to go but since your post about the felpro headgaskets being in the way i haven’t really wanted to do it just yet.

Oil filter drain back is something i thought of as well but because of the way our filters are mounted it doesn’t really allow for oil to be emptied out… i did read somewhere about the possibility of a siphon occurring although i don’t know how possible that would actually be I’ve honestly just been trying to think of anything i can!

cheers

 

If it's only on cold starts, and goes away once oil pressure comes up, that's just lifter bleed-down, and I would bother with the expense/effort of 'fixing' it......

 

hey, HeyYou

Would or Wouldn’t ?

assuming wouldn’t

 

Damn keyboard.... can't spel.....

Correct. "Wouldn't"....