Cured sticking hydraulic tappet with ease!

Hi hopefully this post will help people with a sticking valve. My noise was a loud tick when the motor was warm, it sounded like a leak or cracked exhaust manifold with a loud tapping. Because I occasional get a tappet rattle on cold starts (only 1 or 2 seconds) i thought i would try wynn's hydraulic valve lifter treatment.

Now I am not a big fan of throwing anything down the filler neck apart from good quality oil, so I was skeptical. Anyway warmed my 1997 3.9i V8 LPG up, switched off engine added the treatment. Started the engine up again let it idle with occasional revving for 5-10 min and the tapping noise was still there. Went back outside and started the engine 3 hours later and no noise it only went and cured the bloody noise!

So far so good the wynns treatment worked for £8.99 from halfrauds and saved me pulling the motor apart. If you have a similar problem it should cure it.

Nice one that's lucky, never had any work for me though

td5tool said:

Nice one that's lucky, never had any work for me though

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I was not really expecting it work either but its worth a punt before replacing lifters. However we will see if it continues to work, for all I know it might be a temporary fix. I think I only had 1 sticky tappet but if the whole valvetrain has issues then i doubt it would work. I have 131K on the clock so it might not be long before new camshafts anyway.

we had the same on the wifes MX5 - an oil change to 0w-40 Mobil 1 cured it immediately

Drove 20 miles and the noise is back same as before. It sounds just like one tappet we will see if it goes away in the next few hundred miles. Should I worry about 1 tappet that is noisy when warm?

Are you sure it's not your lift pump ?

Dippypud said:

Are you sure it's not your lift pump ?

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Not sure the noise comes from just the n\s valve cover and increases with revs, the o\s is quiet.

m500dpp said:

we had the same on the wifes MX5 - an oil change to 0w-40 Mobil 1 cured it immediately

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I am a big fan 0f Mobil 1 0w-40 but the old v8s prefer thicker oil due to oil pressure. Too thin can = low oil pressure. Its got castrol magnetec 10w - 40 in at the mo.

robs said:

Not sure the noise comes from just the n\s valve cover and increases with revs, the o\s is quiet.

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Get a long screwdriver / piece of pipe / extension bar whatever to act as a stethoscope type of thing to transmit the noise, put one end where you think the noise is coming from and the other to your ear or the bone behind your ear -
move it around the engine til you can pin-point the sound a little better and maybe tell the 'type' of tap IYKWIM ...

^ Will do in the morning when its light, the funny thing is the wynn's treatment did make it go away after just a few minutes of idling and i went back and started the car 3 more times the sound had gone, it was not till i drove it did the noise come back.

robs said:

I am a big fan 0f Mobil 1 0w-40 but the old v8s prefer thicker oil due to oil pressure. Too thin can = low oil pressure. Its got castrol magnetec 10w - 40 in at the mo.

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Same SAE grade is it not 40, as a multi-grade both are modified to behave like a 40 grade oil at a lower ambient temperature, the Mobil being lower than the Castrol.

discool said:

Same SAE grade is it not 40, as a multi-grade both are modified to behave like a 40 grade oil at a lower ambient temperature, the Mobil being lower than the Castrol.

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So can you use 0w-40 in the serpentine 3.9 V* then?

Used a stethoscope this morning and the noise is coming from the valve cover about 6 inches back towards the engine from the oil filler neck. Sounds more like a tick than a tap. Any ideas what this might be?

robs said:

So can you use 0w-40 in the serpentine 3.9 V* then?

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Why not if you live in the artic, the grade suited for my part of the world is 10w40 as it never gets anywhere below -10c even in the coldest of winters and than only for a few hours, so saying that I could use 15w40 and would be ok as I never had to use my disco from cold at anywhere near -10c

New cars with tight tolerance performance engines use low SAE grade oils now, I own a V8 saloon car that uses Mobil 1 of it's equivalent.

discool said:

Why not if you live in the artic, the grade suited for my part of the world is 10w40 as it never gets anywhere below -10c even in the coldest of winters and than only for a few hours, so saying that I could use 15w40 and would be ok as I never had to use my disco from cold at anywhere near -10c

New cars with tight tolerance performance engines use low SAE grade oils now, I own a V8 saloon car that uses Mobil 1 of it's equivalent.

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I live near Marham in Norfolk and it did get down to minus 13 last winter but generally we are the same temp as you in Kent.

With this in mind do you think putting a 0w-40 oil in will make any difference to the tick. I got a feeling its a worn rocker arm? The tick is more noticeable when warm.

robs said:

Used a stethoscope this morning and the noise is coming from the valve cover about 6 inches back towards the engine from the oil filler neck. Sounds more like a tick than a tap. Any ideas what this might be?

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My rebuilt 3.5 used to tick when cold if not used for a few days, it went away sometimes after a few miles and other times after using it a couple of times.
Still don't know what it was

robs said:

So can you use 0w-40 in the serpentine 3.9 V* then?

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they are basically the same engine just 200 thou wider bores,so are happy with the same oil

landowner said:

My rebuilt 3.5 used to tick when cold if not used for a few days, it went away sometimes after a few miles and other times after using it a couple of times.
Still don't know what it was

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usually a tappet,

Mine ticks\taps when warm as well as cold just worried it might be oil pressure related. But it does sound like just 1 tappet, stethoscope seems to confirm that. If i had low oil pressure would not both camshafts have noisy tappets? and what other symptoms would I have. I think all vehicles should come out the factory with an oil pressure gauge as standard!

You would be better off trying a good 20w50 oil for the v8. Use one for old classics with good zddp levels.