hydraulic valve lifter

[dle_240]

About 1 mouth or 2 ago I started to notice a ticking sound in my engine on the passenger side. I desided to ask a couple of friends. Both of them said that my car was running slow (on 5 cylinders or less) and that I should replace the coil packs and do an oil change and replace the spark plugs. Someone also told me that I might need valve work done( this was told to me by a mechanic that has the same car as me). I replaces one coil pack and did the tune up. Then yesterday the ticking noise started up again. I did another oil change and did some research on 300zx vavle problems and came up with this guide.

http://www.twinturbo.net/net/v...06497

The only problem is I haven't ever taken off my valve covers, so I have no idea how to locate the hydraulic valve lifter. If someone could please tell me if you have run into this problem before or know where the lifter is what is the best way to slove this issue.

[evildky]

come to think of it I havn't had the valve covers off my Z32 either, I think you have topull the timing belt and cams, they should be directly under the cams

[onelessissue]

hey man im in the middle of helping another guy with this problem right now read the thread its still on the frist page and see if it helps if not hit me back ill walk you through it you can even give me a phone call 1990 300ZX non-turbo / VERY LOUD LIFTER NOISE, NEED HYDROLIC LIFTER? scottbrownloans

[Milo (San Antonio)]

Well, It is a little involved to remove lifters. To get to the lifters you will need to pull the plenum, then pull all 4 valve covers off, cam gears and cams will need to come off as well. New lifters can then be purchased and put in or you can rebuild them (a tech on TT.net is there but it sucks to do ). Price just went down on lifters from Nissan, I think I got a full set (24 lifter, 1 per valve) for around $130 if I remember correctly. Order them through ConceptZperformance.com for a small discount.

The lifter "tick" is actually caused by sludge building up inside the hydraulic lifter. You can run an oil additive like Sea Foam (around $3) or Marvel Mystery Oil (about same money amount) to your oil and will help quiet down the tick but unfortunately it is a common occurance in the VG30's hydraulic lifters due mainly to poor maintenance and mileage.

Welcome to baptism to by fired.

[dle_240]

Yea, well I knew at some point in time I would have to do something like this to my car. The person that had the car before me didn't take care of it, so I'm having to go and replace and fix some stuff. I know this is a big job, but in the end, it I get the running like new, and get all the cylinders working correctly 100% of the time then I will be happy. So would you avdive replacing all the lifters or trying to repair them? The price of them doesn't seem to be bad att all for all of them.

[Watermelonwarrior]

how long would this take once the engine is out?

[Wetmyson]

how long would this take once the engine is out?

correct me if i'm wrong, guys, but i don't think the engine needds to come out. just gotta take off coils, intake, boost balance tube, etc. like they said. just enough to get the valve covers off and get in there i think. right?

[Watermelonwarrior]

o i was just asking because my engine is already out.

[Milo (San Antonio)]

The valve covers come off and the cams. The lifters are under the cams. Each came is held on with 4 cam locks that are specific to their location. You will need to pull of the timing and a few other things. If you have the engine out it makes it a little easier, but overall the cams have to come off to be able to access the lifters.

[dle_240]

ok, thanks alot. Once I get some extra cash for new belts I will start on this project. Do you think I should just replace all the lifers or just try to clean them?

[dle_240]

Does anyone know if this would cause oil to burn, because it seems like everytime I do an oil change, there seems to be a loss of oil, oil pressure goes down and the ticking sound comes back.

[evildky]

lifter shouldn't cause loss of oil, if your burning oil and have no external leak, it's either the valve seals, or the rings, either way the heads gotta came off, if you do a compression test forst, then add a squirt of oil to any low culinders and retest, if it increases reading you need rings, if it's unchanged you need valve seals

[dle_240]

Well I went throught the coil packs today to see which cylinder wasn't working correctly. It's the back left one. I don't have the rights tools to do a compression test right now so I can't tell you readings right now. The only thing that I know problem wise is that I have is there is a vacume leak and the ticking sonud will start up once the oil pressure starts to get low, Which I think is the lifters. Do you know if I can rest one of those compression testers?