smoke/vapor from valve cover; lifters a'tickin

[nissilvat]

sup every-1, yesterday in my 240sx, i stopped at a light and heard my lifters ticking away. i always put 4 cylinder oil conditioner in whenever i put in my oil( castrol synthetic 10w30 ). i just changed the oil 75 mi ago and after i heard the ticking i went home unscrewed the oil filler cap ( car still hot )from the valve cover and a bit of steam/vapor came out of the hole. now it wasnt heavy/white like smoke, real thin like a vapor or steam. is this common? i know my lifters are goin bad, how much usually to replace em. what about aftermarket ones, are they expensive??? iam afraid to drive the car cause i dont know what will happen. i have normal oil pressure and no leaks. ????

[grip_racer]

definately a common thing. mine does it and it's fine. so did my old BMW. dont worry, man.

i get down with Mobil 1 5W-30 though.

just string it out, thats talkin' back.

ka heads are a dime a dozen.

[patrick6219]

ive been wonderin the same thing my lifters are tickin and it sounds like crickets. yea i had steam come out of mine too. might be an oil leak maybe and that lifter wont hurt your engine but it sure is annoying right? by the way how much are new lifters ?

[Dattebayo]

Are you sure its the lifters?Usually folks mistake that noise for lifters when it is actually the timing chain clacking against the timing cover.

Use a 2-3 ft. piece of black tubing to isolate the source. Listen to one end and move the other end around the cover till the noise gets loud.

[neagan]

The post on the home-made dr.'s stethiscope is a good one. Having vapors come out on a HOT engine's oil fill is pretty normal. Replacement heads are around 50-60 bucks off of ebay.

My 93 just had a 3000 dollar engine rebuild and it ticks, but like the prior post mentioned, the noise is actually coming from the timing chain, so it probably is the timing chain guides.

If it is the head, I personally would get a spare and then take the time to have someone walk me through some porting and polishing and gasket indexing. That way you wouldn't have any down time when you replaced it. Nitro

[sil80drifter]

replacement USED heads are 5- bucks (PLUS shipping for a heavy item, expect to pay $100)

rebuilt heads are 200-300 (plus shipping)

sil80

[nissilvat]

thanx every-1. iam sure its the lifters, cause they have made this sound many times before, and when i put conditioner in, it quiets it. btw, they stopped tickin 2 day, i noticed when i left work there was nothin but that sweeet engine purrin' and ill try that 5w-30 thanx

[sil80drifter]

lucky you then, i have to clean mine individually.

sil80