The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Hydraulic lifters?

Been helping a friend of mine on some hydraulic lifter noise at the start up of his 235 6 cyl..Now it is mainly in the morning after it has sat for a couple of days. Once she fires up, there seems to be quite a bit of noise in her, now after about 5 to 10 minutes or so the noise goes away and it sounds real good. He is telling me this over the phone because he lives about a 1000 miles from me. The engine has roughly about 60,000 miles on it. Now, are the noted lifters that are making the noise from just leaking down, and wore out or do they just need to be reset like he says? Thanks there Bolters.............

If it quiets down after warming up, he's got a leakdown problem that adjusting isn't likely to solve. Wherever an engine stops there are going to be at least a few valves in the open position. After a few hours or days of sitting with valve spring pressure against the lifter it's going to leak down. It will take a little while after startup for the collapsed lifters to refill with oil and purge all the air out. He might want to try running a solvent-type oil additive for 500 miles or so before his next oil change to try to dissolve any gum or varnish that's accumulated in the lifter check valves, then do a hot-engine oil change. We used to use stuff like Casite Tune-Up, Wynn's Friction Proofing, or Bardahl Engine Treatment for that, but I'm not sure any of those brands are still in business. Half a pint of Diesel fuel or Mineral Spirts added to the crankcase 500 miles before changing oil will do about the same thing.
Jerry

I am so happy to know that there are some Pro. Bolters here on this here sight that you can trust and believe in. Thanks again there Hotrod L......, like have said in the past when H. L. talks everybody listens.