5cyl lifter tap

[Tony Hoffman]

Interestingly enough, I've had them quite noisy on all of the 4000Q's
I've owned. The most recent was quiet until I've had it for a little
while. As soon as I started driving it hard (6000RPM) they got noisy.
I just live with it, but it is anoying from time to time. As stated,
proper oil filters help, and Rislone or ATF added to an oil change
usually quiets them a bit as well. But, every time I auto-x or road
race the car, the noise comes back. I guess the previous owner wasn't
quite as hard on it ;-)

Tony Hoffman


> I was working at such a dealership, and can testify that when the new 5
> cylinder engines were started they usually had such noisy lifters that we
> all felt a little embarrassed to show them to customers. They sounded like
> they were badly out of adjustment. Lots of people bought them anyhow, and
> most of them did quiet down after they warmed up.   As the cars aged, I
> think they usually quieted down a little bit more, and the proper drainback
> valve in the oil filter helped considerably on most cars.
>
> I remember asking the service department if anything could be done to quiet
> them down. They replied that the engines were designed that way. On the
> 4kq, part of the noise was from the auxiliary vacuum pump that ran the
> brake booster. You can read about it in the archives. Some people took the
> drive rod out of the pump and effectively did away with the pump and the noise.
>
> Just a bit of history............
>
> Doyt Echelberger
> The original 5-cylinder in my 87 5ktq at over 300k miles is remarkably
> quiet on startup, compared to when it was new.
>