Rebuilt CA18DET - Valve train tapping noise (Hydraulic Lifter)

[eshaze]

Hiya guys, any help would be greatly appreciated! Here's the situation, completely rebuilt the bottom end of a CA18DET because one of the big ends went, put the engine back in and it runs fine, pulls great, compression perfect but there is an annoying tapping noise coming from under the valve covers. It's ALWAYS there...on cold start, when the engine is at operating temp and up and down the rev range, it sounds like several tapping hydraulic lifters, however I've done several things to try and stop the annoying tapping noise without any luck, i've change the oil to different weights, used additives torqued the oil pick up and checked the oil pick up o ring and its still tapping what can I do apart from buy all new lifters, and is there anyway that you can tell which lifter is making the noise??

Please help many thanks

Sam

[bentvalves]

when you rebuilt the engine and tore the head apart, did you pay attention to where each lifter came from?

[ilovecoupes]

If you put the lifters on their sides, or upside down air can get inside them.

I know for SR's you can bleed them. But im not sure you can bleed ones for the CA

[eshaze]

Hi there thanks for ur replys, I didn't touch the head when it came off the bottom end litterally I loosened the headbolts took the head off and thats it! The cams didn't even come off, and the lifters are all in the same place, I didn't even take them out! You can't bleed the hydraulic lifters in the CA from what i can understand they are self bleeding, tomorrow i'm going to take the cams out and individually check out all the lifters, any other help would be greatly appreciated cheers guys

[float_6969]

Let me know if you figure it out. I've been fighting this for years. I've put 2 sets of new lifters it in and changed the head gasket and it still does it. I'm going to try and put new lifters in it again since I haven't done it since I replaced the HG, but I don't expect it to help.

[davidricardo86]

Could it be possible there is an oil flow restriction somewhere?

[float_6969]

I suppose, but where? My oil pressure looks like it's low too. I haven't tested another gauge against my autometer gauge, but I don't think it's wrong. When the oil is cold and the oil pressure is fine, the lifters stay pumped up just fine. When the oil warms up and the pressure goes down, the lifters get noisy.

I'm wondering if the bearing clearances were wrong when I had the motor rebuilt.

[XTCshri2222]

I have the same problem, i finnaly got my rebuild running, and it's chattering. I kept checking the oil, but that darn CA oil dip stick is so hard to read with clean oil. i got my gauges still wiring them in, hope to get readings tomarrow so i can figger this out.

[eshaze]

The majority of the noise was coming from the intake cam side, today I checked the clearances between the cam and lifters there should be zero clearance and one of the lifters had a gap!! I took that lifter out and put it in gas for a couple of hours subsequently it freed up....put it back in turned the car over by hand, check clearances and all ok......started it up..... still and guess what still the f***ing tappy tap tap a roo noise....LIVID!!! Tomorrow I'm checking the cam lobe sizes, as the cams could be so worn causing the lifters to tap if so will be replacing the cams!!! .... Oh some info 4 u guys, you can replace the stock intake cam with another exhaust cam...i.e. TWO exhaust cams, profiles are bigger and lift is greater cheers guys any other info would be sweet....PEACE

[capowered240]

Well I found this on another forum. I don't know if this is true or not.

I hate to break it to you guys but the CA suffers from serious oil pressure problems and Oil break-down.That causes the hydraulic lifters to collapse when the oil gets to thin or to stick slightly.

This causes a slight tappet sound and the incorrect opening or not correct sealing of the valve this can be stopped by solid lifters or very good quality oil with oil cooler. The factory unit "oil-cooler" is more an oil stabilizer. it does cool oil much it just stops the temps getting out of hand, sometimes after hard driving it will only stabilizes at past the oil break-down threshold.

[eshaze]

Thanks 4 the info, thing is i'm very confused as the valve train was pretty much silent before the bottom end was rebuilt, however i did have the complete engine upside down when dismantling it, thats the only thing, I can think of that could have caused this awful taping noise! Does anyone have any contacts that can get hold of genuine nissan lifters?? any help would be awesome cheers

[slo]

Mine just started to tap like this two days ago. It started intermittent, now it's on all the time. Did you ever find the cure?

[slo]

Also, does it damage anything if you continue to drive with the tapping noise?

[float_6969]

Mine still taps. It could potentially damage the lifters and maybe the cams.

[slo]

Does anyone have a video of what hydraulic lifter taps sound like?

[ragenasian]

Mine started to do it and I asked TMS what he thought. He told me to change the oil, drive for about a week, then change the oil again. This would slowly clean out any build up and safer then an engine cleaning solution. I did as he said and the tapping went away. Maybe I just got lucky too

Of course this wouldn't fix the OP's problem as he already stated he has changed his oil several times.

[progman]

I read that you can submerge lifters with air in them in oil and masturbate them until no more air comes out.

[tom@ica]

i pulled my lifters out of my head. And I dont remember where they all go... am i screwed? Do I have to mic them all, plus mic the head ? If i buy new ones does it matter where they go? I am confused on this...

[biosehnsucht]

Huh, I never bothered to track which lifters went where when I rebuilt my engine. Mine only tap when the oil is ****ed up.

You can sort of bleed them, but you'll need to soak them in a lightweight oil of some kind, actually when I cleaned mine up I think I started with acetone bath, then dried them and soaked them in kerosene for a night or two, then moved up to like 20w oil... when I put them in the acetone all kinds of **** oil came out of the little holes in the tops.

Once you've got them all fully bathed in oil, don't tip them over when you transfer them to the head ...

This is from rusty memory, I might have some details of what I did wrong.

[float_6969]

Mine were completely silent before my rebuild as well. They've ALWAYS been an issue since the rebuild. I've used all types of oil and an oil cooler. I've replaced the lifters at least twice. Nothing fixes it.

There is something else going on.

[ca18detgabby]

Mine were completely silent before my rebuild as well. They've ALWAYS been an issue since the rebuild. I've used all types of oil and an oil cooler. I've replaced the lifters at least twice. Nothing fixes it.

There is something else going on.

you should just enjoy the sound........... it gives the engine character right?

[RotoryGuy319]

My buddys has that problem, it was intermitten at first and now its all the time between 2300 and 6000 rpm. tore it apart and it ended up being bottom end. the wrist pin on the piston went. (BTW this was caused by having too much fun with a Bee*R rev limiter) lol

[rico05]

Mine does this, but only when full warm, and only at moderate throttle. Light throttle and heavy throttle, nothing. It does it at all RPMs. Damn lifters....

[boost_boy]

Mine does this, but only when full warm, and only at moderate throttle. Light throttle and heavy throttle, nothing. It does it at all RPMs. Damn lifters....

If it helps, the ones on my sentra tapped and the car didn't slow down one bit.

Dee

[meminto]

You can bleed the CA hydraulic lifters, progman's analagy is sort of correct.

You can also disassemble the CA hydraulic lifter and clean each one out, then reassemble, I have some info on this that I will dig up from my archives.

If you want to bleed them, you need to submege them upside down in CLEAN oil, then use a coathanger or something to repeatedly push the valve in.

If you find that no matter what you do, you cannot push the lifter valve in, take the lifter out of the oil and let it sit the right way up for 24 hours or so, it will be easy to bleed afterwards.

Back in the oil, when you are pushing the valve in, you will see small air bubbles appear from the pin holes in the lifter, then when the air is gone, you should see the oil swirling with no air bubbles, they will be bled when this occurs.

Do not sit them upside down when finished, my suggestion is to put each one straight back in the head when bled properly.

Hope this helps...

Here is a link to the page on how to pull the lifters apart..

http://twinturbo.net/net/viewm...rch=0

I would suggest copying to a word document for ease of printing
Modified by meminto at 4:37 AM 5/17/2008

[roplusbee]

That information should be stickied if you decide to post it. I think that is something that all CA owners can benefit from. I know I am going to give it a shot just from what you've typed just now. I am going to be on leave in about a month, so I will do all of my tear the engine apart stuff then so I won't be without a ride. thanks for sharing

Rob

[rico05]

Thanks a lot. I ordered some new lifters from work and they were discontinued. I am more than likely moving in the next few weeks, and since it will be for a "real" job (ie weekends off), I will make this a little project.

[cbh148]

You can bleed the CA hydraulic lifters, progman's analagy is sort of correct.

You can also disassemble the CA hydraulic lifter and clean each one out, then reassemble, I have some info on this that I will dig up from my archives.

If you want to bleed them, you need to submege them upside down in CLEAN oil, then use a coathanger or something to repeatedly push the valve in.

If you find that no matter what you do, you cannot push the lifter valve in, take the lifter out of the oil and let it sit the right way up for 24 hours or so, it will be easy to bleed afterwards.

Back in the oil, when you are pushing the valve in, you will see small air bubbles appear from the pin holes in the lifter, then when the air is gone, you should see the oil swirling with no air bubbles, they will be bled when this occurs.

Do not sit them upside down when finished, my suggestion is to put each one straight back in the head when bled properly.

Hope this helps...

Here is a link to the page on how to pull the lifters apart..

http://twinturbo.net/net/viewm...rch=0

I would suggest copying to a word document for ease of printing
Modified by meminto at 4:37 AM 5/17/2008

As usual, I'm reviving an old thread for the sake of exercising the SEARCH function! And besides, google brings me to this page no matter how I search for what I'm looking for.

Just wanted to say that I just did exactly what this post said, and I'll update this to let everyone know if it works or not. I've had most every Nissan engine I've owned have the annoying lifter tick and I want it to end with my CA18 that I'm in the process of assembling.

[Luchitosan]

I rebuild the head and rev up to 3000 about 15-25 min and never load, still noise, but some friend teach me to do this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX5XLh1AFlU

and the sounds ends !
You have sort some "pre - bleed" the lifters like the video and put it in the head,
start the engine around 2500 rpm and the oil pressure adjust the lifters (like any other hidro lifter)

thats works for me i hope it helps.

[cbh148]

Would you translate all of that into English for me? I'd really appreciate it.

I just put my cams in, but if this is a guaranteed method of preventing lifter tick, then I'll do it.