Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

I'm trying not to let this concern me, but I thought i'd post just in case. My SVX has a single ticking lifter on the right bank. It only does this when the car is cold, and it goes away by the time the car reaches operating temp. My SVX only has about 40,000 miles on it, but was driven at least twice a week since it was new - Just short trips.

Once the roads get nice, i'm going to take it to the Subaru dealer and have the oil changed. Is it too late to switch to synthetic?

Is there anything I can do to quiet this lifter. :)

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

The noisy lifters are pretty much normal from what I understand on Subarus.

As far as synthetic, you can switch a car to full synth. at any time, just realize that if you have any type of gasket leaks, they will get worse.

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

+1

When the car is cold, they tick a bit. Or if they've been sitting a while and the oil has drained out of the heads, they'll tick until the oil gets flowing all the way. Even brand new Subarus do this in my experience.

Keep in mind that a car that only gets driven short distances will wear much faster than one that gets fully warmed up and driven for on long trips regularly. You should treat the car as if it's seeing "extreme duty" or whatever they call it in the service schedule booklets these days. Change the oil more frequently. Synthetic would help, but like nate said, if you've got any leaks, they'll get worse.

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

I had about 120K miles on my car when I switched to synthetic, but I completely re-sealed the engine before I changed the oil. Even with that, it actually started leaking through the silicon sealing the oil pan to the engine. I put the oil in back in August, and now almost 7000 KM ago (4000-4500 miles), and the oil is only slightly brown. Conventional would be tar coloured by now. I'm running AMSOIL 5W30, which has a 25,000 miles guarantee.

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

Mike,

I have exactly the same problem with my Mitsubishi RVR. Clicking on the hydraulic lifters.

Warms up, it goes away. Sometimes.

Here is what I have discovered. It is exacerbated by coking of the engine. [and made worse as well :rolleyes:]

The Mitsi engine has much in common with the SVX, though it is not obvious. High compression for one thing. The SVX is 10:1, pretty high. The Mitsi is lean burn direct injection, and is 14:1. Stratospheric for a petrol.

Both are paired to auto gearboxes that hunt for higher gears and low revs. The result is the engines run cool a lot, and get coked a lot. The answer is use a chemical foam into the intake, or possibly a chemical additive to the fuel to decoke the heads.

Personally I use the foam into the intake method, as it goes right in with the fuel and coats and cleans the moving parts. The product I use is EcoteK, and all I can say is it works if you do it like the instructions say to do it.

It has stopped mine from clicking. You have to do it every six months or so, as the engines tend to coke up depending what quality petrol you use.

Hope this helps

Joe :)

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

I don't understand. Foam? As in Seafoam?

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

Don't forget it's a long way to NJ from this side of the Atlantic. ;) There are different products available to do similar jobs.

Yes is the short answer. I've never seen Sea Foam over here. I looked it up and it appears to be applied in a similar fashion.

http://www.seafoamsales.com/deepCreepTech.htm

The product/company I mentioned is called EcoTek. They call it Power Boost:

http://www.ecotekplc.com/

It essentially decokes the valves and head while the engine is warmed up and running. Clears out varnish and gum. The reason I called it a foam is because that is what you spray into the intake, cleaning chemicals formatted as a foam.

It works very well for the clicking of the valves. If you have other problems caused by gummed up injectors you would be better using the variant that you add to the gasoline. I notice SeaFoam has that in tins as well.

Hope that helps,

Joe :)

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

I've driven Subarus for over 20 years and all have sounded at cold startup rather like a never-oiled antique sewing machine with a few key parts missing. But I never realized how typical this is until I started paying attention to my colleague's Legacy when he starts his before I start mine when we leave work. This truly put my mind at ease.

I had my silver idling in the drive the other day, hood up, and my daughter, who'd been in the yard for several minutes, didn't even realize it was running. They sound much more contented when fully warm.

dcb

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

Thanks everyone for the info! I feel much better now. None of my previous SVX's had this issue.

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

Hi Mike, You can get "Valvoline Max Life" full synthetic. Its one of those oils for high mileage cars. That covers about all SVXs. In your case, your car doesn't have high miles, but its still seventeen or so years old. I would think your car would benefit from the additive pack in this type of oil. The local guys and stores like Auto Zone don't seem to carry it. I found it at My favorite parts place. Walmart! As I always say, you pays your dough and you gets your thrills. Take care, BOBB

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

Bobb

This is the first time I have heard of MaxLife, thanks for the info.

A word of caution; you are recommending full synthetic MaxLife, and all of the feedback on the forum down through the years cautions against full synthetic unless, and this is the important bit, the engine has been run on fully synthetic all its life.

We all know as the EG33 gets older we get oil leaks from the front seals and from the valve guides and so on. Fully synthetic has the ability to shift sludge and varnish from around seals, and possibly disimproves the actual physical condition of the seals themselves. We don't know the full skinny on the mechanism, but the end result is to cause major oil weeping at seals that seemed previously OK when using mineral oil.

The information states that MaxLife has a "seal conditioner". This sounds like good news and the answer to a prayer. It also has detergent capabilities as you would expect to clean up gunge, varnish and sludge.

If anybody using this product does not know that their engine has been using fully synth since new or for at least a couple of years with no oil leaks from seals, I would advise caution and use the standard mineral/synthetic blended version of MaxLife instead. It has all the same cleaning and conditioning capabilities of the synthetic one. It will not have the long life and higher temperature capability of the synthetic product, but unless you are racing your car, you don't need this.

If I can find this [mineral] product I will definitely use it.

Thanks Bobb

Joe :)

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

Not true, You can switch to synthetic at any time as I said earlier. Just any slight seaping spot on the motor will get worse. A lot of mechanics say that it is not good as you say for that simple fact as well as they don't think it does anything since the oil looks/stays good for so long. I switched my 95 cutlass over to full synthetic with 125,000 miles on it and that is an engine known to have intake manifold and head gasket failures. When I sold it with 132,000 the oil was still full and I had no problems with any leaks. I also switched over my 99 Grand Prix to full synthetic with 199,000 on it and that too when I sold it with just over 210,000 was still full. Those engines have problems with valve cover gaskets and mine never lost a drop.

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

I don't disagree with what you say Nate. I didn't say the synthetic would not work, just that the feedback from people who made the change showed a lot of seeping from seals.

Long term use of fully synthetic, particularly from new, probably benefits from the use of seal conditioners which bulk up the seals and counteract the cleaning effect that manages to hasten the leaks when changing over.

The cheaper Valvoline MaxLife product is not 100% mineral anyway, it is a blend with synthetic. I would still use this over the 100% synth. In the SVX it will do the same job at less cost.

Joe :)

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

I see what you are saying and that you essentially realize the same thing. My own mechanic is one that disagrees with use of synthetic but never gives a solid reason. He just doesn't like it. He's stubborn.

Re: Lifter tick from passenger side bank.
 

This is why I asked about synthetic:

I'm a big Audi enthusiast, and follow the cars closely. Audi recommends Synthetic (Mobil 1, specifically) in all of their cars. The cars that have the 1.8t Petrol engine absolutely require it. The engines only last about 50-75k miles before becoming overwhelmed by sludge if synthetic oil is not used.

So, clearly, synthetic oil has advantages, but is it true that those advantages don't apply to the SVX?

Since my car is subject to the "extreme use" definition (Since I don't run it far, or often), what should I be doing to reduce wear on the engine components?

Thanks, all!