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Noisy tappets?


Dezzie

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Hi everyone.

In the morning when the engine is cold, the tappet noise on my year 2000 2 litre diesel (L-Series) is awful. Once I've got 3 minutes into my journey, the engine becomes quieter, and all is fine. It's just last week clicked over to 100,000 miles, and been well serviced and cared for all it's life.

When the engine was last serviced, about 3000 miles ago, I put in some decent quality 10w40 semi-synthetic, hoping to cure the problem. Obviously it hasn't.

I've purchased some "SLICK - 50" friction reducer from Halfrauds. Has anyone used this or got any advice / concerns ?

What's the final outcome if this doesn't work? New Tappets replaced? Or is there a 'secret' to curing the problem that I'm not aware of? I guess the problem will just get worse and worse.

Thanks for any help. ............ Matt.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Rangy35. Thanks for the reply.

It never occurred to me that the oil pressure might be an issue, it may be something to think about. Although, the problem isn't there all the time, only on cold mornings and then goes away.

It may be worth me having this checked though, cheers.

Why do you say that about SLICK50 ? I remember using it on a car I had years ago, and it ran smoother, was quieter, a little quicker and just seemed all the better for using it.

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Many years ago engines were build differently, not as tight as today.

If you only have it when cold and first start up it may be worth it to do a engine flush and fresh oil and filter maybe a 10w-40 or 5w-40 quality oil.

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Hi,

I second a good engine flush and fresh oil and filter. I have done many thousands of miles in several L-series equipped Rovers with neglected service intervals and have experienced the rattly tappets on start up a couple of times. Always went away with a good service.

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Go back to basics. When did you last set or adjust the tappets? Are they standard land Rover valve caps? These are too soft and wear, some to the extent that they end up as tiny washers sitting on the valve cap with the residue in the sump :huh: .

Buy a set of hardened valve caps from Turner Engineering, their part No. is LJC100270. Fit them and reset you tappets, you shouldn't have any more noise problems but even so you will still need to check and adjust the tappet gaps every 30,000 miles as a standard service procedure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hydraulic lifters on this engine, so no adjustment possible. Assuming that all is ok with the rest of the engine, then the lifters are what I would suspect. They can stick when cold - due to carbon build-up inside them. The top of the lifter can also become dished - due to wear caused by camshaft lobe contact with them. This is caused by poor servicing/wrong oil. You can't usually strip, clean, rebuild, lifters, but I have done so in the past with care and always success. Labour intensive though, as you have to usually remove the camshaft in order to remove/replace the lifters.

Les

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Hi everyone. Thanks for all the replies.

Cheers Les. I'm fairly confident that the engine has been well looked after. I'm the third owner, and I know the previous owner really well (a friend of mine). Both of us have kept religiously to the service regime, and since I've had the vehicle (2010), it's been looked after extremely well, probably over the top to be honest. I only use good quality 10w 40, and the engine has now done 101,000 from new. (15 years old). However, I've taken on board what you've mentioned, and I'll look into it, thanks.

Now that the warmer weather is here, the engine is much quieter in the mornings. I'll give the engine a fresh oil & filter change, and see how it goes.

Cheers.

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