The Famous Ticking noise of a CA18DET..

[themadscientist]

not quite as artful as when I convinced some goof the aluminum double sully on a rotary engine was a 5 degree advanced keyway for the alternator. what a tard; I almost felt guilty....almost.

[dhen]

About ATF, I put a 1/2 quart in my Ford Ranger (140,000 miles) with my last oil change 2,000 miles ago. I've noticed, well, nothing. I guess that's a good thing, since it is a good detergent and nothing has been knocked loose...

Using ATF is old school, but apparently it doesn't hurt anything.

[themadscientist]

Rotary guys swear by it to free up carbon-stuck rotor seals.

[boost_boy]

My engine is a ticker as well. It would tick most times and sometimes would be as quiet as can be in front of possible customers (fronting biotch). But it finally got exposed when I got a new Garrett 60-1 dual ball bearing CHRA to replace my Turbonetics 60-1 single ball bearing CHRA and I cranked-up up the boost. Boost starts at 18psi, 22psi, 26psi, and ending at 29.6psi between the 4 channels on my boost controller. Well, after running through all 4 channnels, my oil pressure drops dramatically when the car has been driven for at least 10miles, but is perfectly high and normal when cold. The oil pressure is as low 29psi @ or around 4000rpm which tells me that something is either wrong with the pump or the engine is in trouble.

So in realizing that this was a junkyard motor, that still sports 150psi per cylinder after all that thrust pumped thorugh it on 93 octane, tells me that the top side of my engine is fine, but the damn lifter(s) makes the embarrassingly loud ticking noise. So after work yesterday, I pulled the engine for inspection of the bottom side. I've already pulled the pump, but have not inspected it yet, though I suspect it is the culprit. I noticed that when the pump is happy, the lifters were quiet. But after that brutal beating, the noisy lifter thing became more consistent no matter what I did. I'll get back with you guys on this one as I now have to go prepare the B13 sentra for daily commute.

Dee

[boost_boy]

The verdict is in on my engine's internal condition: Good to go. The bearings have more than 95% life left in them and everything just looks like I expected "Crisp". So I'm going to safely assume that the oil pump was on its way out the door and provided me more than enough warning via the lifters and then dropping oil pressure upon driving for about 10 miles or so. The oil pressure would drop consistently at or around the same area on the highway and the same results by the time I got work (tick, tick, tick, tick) as well as low and inconsistent readings on the oil pressure gauge. Hope this helps a bit for the rest of you that have the ticking noise. Volume appears to be the problem and there isn't enough oil supplying the head, but that's another inspection on another day.

De

[zero_gripS13]

mine ticks also from the intake side, but i am running dual exhaust cams and was thinking it might be that.. its only for a select rev range. aroun d 1200-2k then it goes away from what i can tell.. if it idles around 800 i dont notice it..

my oil pressue reading match the fsm which ithink is 20 at idle 60 at 3k.. brand new nissan oil pump 350 miles on it.. when i took the motor apart. i set the lifters out in correct position for about a month then they sat in oil for several months i dont know if this affected anyhting i fliped em around and pumped them in the oil to remove air a few felt squishy others were firm im guessin i just have a couple weak ones....but the injectors are pretty damn loud too lol...

[silvios]

I have the same problem in my freshly forged CA.

I am pretty sure it is lifters. I am using a crap mineral 20-50 for run in, which could be causing this.

[float_6969]

Due to the design of these lifters, it's pretty hard to get the air worked out of them, and unless you're VERY careful to keep them upright when they're out of the motor, they almost always get air in them when they're removed. BUT they're also designed so that if they get air in them, the natural flow of oil should drive the air out once the engine is running.

After my experience with the failed oil filter, I wonder how many of us have an obstruction blocking oil flow to the head. The opening in the check valve in the block is pretty small. (On another note, after seeing how small the opening is for the oil flow to the head. I'm HIGHLY doubtful of the CA18DET having the same oil drain-back problems the RB does.) My noisy lifters were due to low oil pressure. This was due to my previous engine builder forgetting to put the oil galley plugs back in the crankshaft! I have newly rebuilt lifters in the engine now and plugs in the crank, so I'm not expecting any more noisy lifters.

[cbh148]

Gahh, I just know my CA is gonna have noisy lifters when I fire it up for the first time.

I put each lifter in some 5w-30 synthetic oil I had leftover from changing oil on my Honda. I bled them as best I could by hand till no more bubbles came out. They went back in the head in the exact same order, and I was careful to not tip them sideways during the process. None of the lifters really felt much softer or firmer than others.

Fingers crossed.