JakZe

iTrader: (1)

Is it possible to 'de-prime' a HLA lifter?

Hear me out..

I have a rebuilt motor, almost new everything, including lifters. (ITM lifters)

When I first started the motor, it had a minor tick, then it grew and eventually went away. Figured that was normal. Got myself fab9 COPs and installed them, was having issues getting the engine to start with the COPs and it cranked for awhile trying to figure out what's the problem. When I reverted back to the normal coil pack and etc, car started up, but the lifter tick came back louder then before. But I think its louder now because the car had no exhaust before so I couldn't really hear the tick fully lol

Anyways I let the car idle for about 15 minutes, and the tick went away. Gave myself a good mini heart attack, but I'm just curious if this is normal if you crank the engine for awhile you could lose oil from your lifters.

der_vierte

I've had two "ticker miatas" myself.

They both had lifter tick at cold start for 2-3 seconds. Normal. Sometimes they ticked the first few minutes, sometimes half an hour - not really consistent. They even started to tick after an hour of driving out of nowhere.

My "newly" built engine NEVER ticks, only on startup for a second. I cleaned the used HLA's and pre filled them with oil, but I don't think that they held all the oil inside up to the first start up.

So, they drain over time, but if they're fully filled after startup, they shouldn't tick at all with the right oil pressure. Cranking isn't going to do any damage to your lifters, if everything is mechanically okay.

x_25

They don't fill up well with cold oil. Every time I have done a timing belt job (so lots of turning the engine over with low oil pressure and cold oil) I have had at least one lifter tick until the oil comes up to temperature and re-primes it.

JakZe

iTrader: (1)

Ok sounds like this is what happened in my case. Lots of cranking. When started, one lifter ticked untill like 10 minutes of idling and it went away.


Just started the car after sitting over night, no ticks. Very strange. Didn't know they could be 'de-primed' by just cranking it for awhile. Unless something else caused the tick to come back :/