Re: I-5 Lifters and Marvel Mystery Oil

["Avram Dorfman" <dorfman@est.org>]

I was looking into the Bentley Manual for my brother's '88 80q, regarding
the prospect of changing the valve lifters b/c his has the same problem.
Apparently, it's very easy, very cheap, and the only "weird" tool that it
requires is a torque wrench.

Not only that, but contrary to what mechanics will tell you, it seems to say
you can individually test each lifter, and only change the ones that are
bad. And testing them is even easier.

Valve lifters cost about $20 each, according to our local Audi dealer,
although they've mislead us before. They appear to be just little metal
cylinders, maybe around an inch across, w/ no moving parts. They are just
the shim that the cam pushes on to push the valves. Someone please correct
me if I'm wrong - I haven't actually been inside yet.

This is an approximation of the procedure, from memory - do not take it to
be gospel, it is just for discussion.

    1) take of the cam cover
        the lifters are directly under each cam lobe
    2) press each down with a wooden stick
    3) note any that move more than 0.1 mm
        note: rotate engine so cam isn't
            depressing lifter before you testing that lifter)
        (how do you measure 1/10th mm?
            My read on this is "if they move 'at all'")
    4) turn engine so cyl#1 is TDC (cam straight up)
    5) remove camshaft
        (removing bolts in very specific order which I don't recall)
    6) replace bad lifters
    7) return camshaft in exactly same orientation (cam straight up)
    8) tighten camshaft in very specific order, to specific torques
        (reverse of order from above I believe)
    9) return cam cover

To simply check to see how many you have that are bad (& which ones), you
would simply skip steps 4-8.

It sounds like checking them would take less than an hour, and replacing,
maybe 2-3 hours. Anyone out there tried this themselves? Does it get any
more complicated than this?

-Avram