blakes7

I have a 71 Delta 88 with the 455, around 108,000 miles. It looks like the heads were off at some point, and I know the car sat for a very long time. I've no idea if the lifters are original. I got it a few years ago. After replacing leaking exhaust manifold gaskets, I can now hear one lifter tapping when the engine gets hot. I have Valvoline conventional 10/30 in it right now, with maybe a couple of hundred miles on the oil.
Call me lazy, but I really hate to start taking things apart and opening a can of worms. Would heavier oil help? Would Marvel Mystery Oil help? Sythetic oil? High zinc oil?
Any opinions/comments/advice is welcome. Thanks.

MDchanic

It's hard to be definitive, or to be certain it's a lifter without hearing it in person, but in all likelihood a good engine cleaning, such as with SeaFoam, and a good, long, hard highway drive, will clean it out.

- Eric

oldcutlass

I've used Marvel Mystery oil and Rislone engine oil treatment to clean dirty partially clogged lifters. Just follow the directions on the bottle.

brownbomber77

And then use some better oil with higher zinc content. I remember looking at my brother's '77 350 doing an intake and head swap and seeing the lobes that were starting to tear apart after only a few thousand miles

matt69olds

A couple of quarts of ATF works well also. Just keep in mind trans fluid is much thinner than engine oil, dont beat on the engine. A easy cruise on the highway will loosen up the crud. Change the oil and filter, hopefully that will quiet things down.

Kennybill

I would put a new NAPA Gold oil filter on before trying these products.

blakes7

I just bought Seafoam and might try it today. If it doesn't blow up on me, I'll drive it for a while or until the noise goes away, then change my oil. Even though I can't know for sure, I don't think it's loaded with sludge and that Seafoam will open a can of worms on me. I hope Seafoam works faster, because when I did this years ago in a 77 Cadillac with Marvel Mystery Oil, it took a very long time.

blakes7

No luck with seafoam, so I finally got around to pulling the valve cover. Starting it and putting a length of brake line on each rocker arm, it was easy to tell which one it was making the noise, which is now all the time, hot or cold. Rockers had wear, push rods were straight and clear. Replaced the two rocker arms with others less worn, reused the aluminum bridge since it looked good. Noise was gone when first started, then it came right back after a few seconds. It took a while for oil to begin coming out of the rods at idle speed. It was just oozing out of most of them, including the one making the noise, again only at idle speed. One was squirting like a jet, I didn't want to risk revving it up and having oil all over the place. Looks like I'll have to do lifters?

oldcutlass

Pull the intake and inspect all the lifter bottoms and cam lobes for wear. Don't mix them up, they need to go back into the same bores if not being replaced.

blakes7

If I pull the intake, I'll replace all the lifters, rocker arms, bridges and push rods just to be sure. I'm just wondering why the noisy lifter was quiet for a few seconds after replacing the rocker arm.

Dave26

Could the new rocker have loosened up or not had the correct lash.

coppercutlass

what probably happened is when you took the rocker arms off the lifter pumped up. once it bled off the noise was back. I have a really loud lifter on cold starts. It bleeds off and takes a while to pump up. I usually do a dry crank then I fire it up and it might make noise for a few seconds.

You have to make sure the lifters are worn properly if that's the case you could take the lifters apart and clean them and inspect them.

Greg Rogers

I remember I bought a nice 78 88 from the dealership I worked at back in the eighties. It was traded in and ran on 7 cylinders. I wanted to resell the car and fix it cheap. One lifter had came apart and bent the push rod. I bought one new lifter and push rod. Put it back together and it ran great for about 10 minutes. Took it back apart and another lifter had came apart. Then I replaced all 16 lifters and ran good. I still don't know why that happened. Maybe Jr. used the car and over revved it??

blakes7

It stayed tight, I started it with the valve cover off.

blakes7

This is what I was thinking, and hoping someone else would agree with. If I go to the effort of pulling the intake, I might as well change everything so I don't have to do it again.

Could it be from the lower zinc oil? Could it be from the car sitting for years without use or running at all?

Could I have an oil pressure problem? I think if I did, all the lifters would be making noise by now.

oldcutlass

Because there is not enough preload, faulty or dirty lifter, worn cam lobe or lifter bore. You won't know until you pull the intake and inspect.

blakes7

An update for your reading pleasure. My lifter noise got to the point when it was there all the time, hot or cold. I have conventional Valvoline 10/40. I put a whole can of seafoam in, and a small bottle of zinc additive. It's been driven on a few long rides, 20 mins to an hour. It's now quiet when cold, starts making intermittent noise as it warms up, then ticks all the time when hot. I think the noise goes away when revving high enough, it's hard to tell if it's there or not and being drowned out by wind and exhaust sounds. Still just that one lifter. I'm hoping that if I keep driving it with that seafoam it'll eventually clean it out and the noise goes away altogether. However, it may have other plans. Opinions are welcome, thanks.

Tedd Thompson

I fought lifter noise or sticking lifters on two of my cars,the 55 and my Miata. All went away when I started using Rotella 15-40. It has the detergent and the zddp that my engines like.Your mileage may very.....Tedd

coppercutlass

Rotella has lowered the level of zddp. Use a good substitute additive like lucas readily available. Fwiw. I have ran lifters at .010 preload with no noise. Makes more hp.

Tedd Thompson

Copper where and how long ago did you get your information on the Rotella .The last I saw was 1080 ppm and that was down from 1200 ppm but still high enough for flat tappets... Just curious.... Tedd

coppercutlass

I belive it was a member here . I used to run the rotella myself. I switched to VR1 price is about the same has high levels of zddp and readily available at most parts stores.