Thread: Noisy tappets after 3.5 rebuild, oil flow?

time for the ole auto oil in the sump routine...

500Mls or so into the sump and pour a couple dozen mills or so down each pushrod hole, turn the engine over on the starter a couple dozen revs before letting it start then let it start...

it should be quite straight up. and if everything goes right it should start spurting oil. The TX oil will only hang around the lifters for a minute or 2 so you will need to keep topping them up.

If you want to be nasty after 5 minutes or so once some heat has gotten into the engine, Sparingly add some dieso to the pushrods.

If it keeps tapping after that its time to recheck all your work.

If it stays quiet for 10 minutes or so its time for an oil change, use the winter weight oil which should be 5-20wt or close to it then after 1000k or so change back to your normal oil...

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

time for the ole auto oil in the sump routine...

500Mls or so into the sump and pour a couple dozen mills or so down each pushrod hole, turn the engine over on the starter a couple dozen revs before letting it start then let it start...

it should be quite straight up. and if everything goes right it should start spurting oil. The TX oil will only hang around the lifters for a minute or 2 so you will need to keep topping them up.

If you want to be nasty after 5 minutes or so once some heat has gotten into the engine, Sparingly add some dieso to the pushrods.

If it keeps tapping after that its time to recheck all your work.

If it stays quiet for 10 minutes or so its time for an oil change, use the winter weight oil which should be 5-20wt or close to it then after 1000k or so change back to your normal oil...

Holy cR@p Sounds serious!

Ummm, whats the theory behind it? Whats the trans oil doing? Its thinner i'm assuming... Can't the oil pump prime with standard oil? Is this normal?

As mentioned many times before , will pouring standard oil down the push rods etc help the cause. Obviously something's got to get the oil up from the sump to the rockers, and i can't see how if it's not doing it itself...

Oh, and by dieso, i assume you mean diesel. A small amount of diesel. A very small amount of diesel .

Try this its a old trick
Get your self a old long flat bladed screw driver (about 30 cm long+) and cut the handle off
Remove the dissy , get the screw driver shaft and place it in a electric drill (variable speed if you have one)
Now look down the hole the dissy came out of you will notice a slot that is the drive for the oil pump it is driven off the dissy

Now place the screw driver on the end of the drill down the hole and in the oil pump slot
operate the drill and get some one to watch you rocker gear you should start to see oil drip from the rocker gear

auto fluid has lots of detergents in it which is why it froths so well when areated... your using that to clean out the small galleries that feed the tappets and to initially lube the tappets.

Since your oil pressure light is going out then the pump is priming and working unless you have some freaky elec fault.

double check that with a multi meter onto the oil pressure switch make sure its open circut when the engine is stopped and closed circut when its running. IF thats all good its just a blocked gallery causing your problem.

yep by dieso I ment diesel altho kero, or paint thinners will work just as well, The problem with these is they have a very low filming point and will not protect your bearings and working parts if used excessively at least ATF has just enough filming to it to protect the engine at low speeds if you go too much.

you will get very very yucky oil out of doing this so before you start be sure to have good oil and filters on standby.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

auto fluid has lots of detergents in it which is why it froths so well when areated... your using that to clean out the small galleries that feed the tappets and to initially lube the tappets.

Since your oil pressure light is going out then the pump is priming and working unless you have some freaky elec fault.

double check that with a multi meter onto the oil pressure switch make sure its open circut when the engine is stopped and closed circut when its running. IF thats all good its just a blocked gallery causing your problem.

yep by dieso I ment diesel altho kero, or paint thinners will work just as well, The problem with these is they have a very low filming point and will not protect your bearings and working parts if used excessively at least ATF has just enough filming to it to protect the engine at low speeds if you go too much.

you will get very very yucky oil out of doing this so before you start be sure to have good oil and filters on standby.

Thanks Blknight.aus... I will try that during the week. Looks like its my best chance. Thanks for the informative expaination too

Noise on start up of a rebuilt 3.5 is NOT usually caused by dry rockers but by lifters that have not been primed in oil before fitting.
The correct thing to do is get say a jam tin of oil, sit the rocker upright in the bottom , then plunge it down several times until resistance is felt.
The rocker covers will always seem dry, as not much oil is flung around.
It is pretty hard to do something wrong with the shafts, but one thing is to shim under the posts without leaving an oilway.
If the lifters have not been primed it can take 15 minutes to quieten down.
Regards Philip A

the 3.5 (afaik) is the same as the 3.9 and Tim from landrovers only put me onto this trick when mine started making noises....

Id assumed that the lifters had been primed initially or at least wetted and compressed before installation....

If thats not been done than pulling them out again is the best option but manually cranking the engine over with really thin oil (running in oil) in the sump might get you out of trouble.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Noise on start up of a rebuilt 3.5 is NOT usually caused by dry rockers but by lifters that have not been primed in oil before fitting.
The correct thing to do is get say a jam tin of oil, sit the rocker upright in the bottom , then plunge it down several times until resistance is felt.
The rocker covers will always seem dry, as not much oil is flung around.
It is pretty hard to do something wrong with the shafts, but one thing is to shim under the posts without leaving an oilway.
If the lifters have not been primed it can take 15 minutes to quieten down.
Regards Philip A

But now that i have the rocker covers (back) off, why can't i see any splattering etc of oil on the shafts? Can someone please tell me how much oil to expect around the shafts? Would i miss it? As i say, there is a small amount at the bottom, but none flowing anywhere. Eg. would it "spray" up and splash on my (nearby) hand? I CANNOT prime the lifters for 15 mins if i'm not convinced i don't have an oil lubrication problem. As i said earlier, IMHO the engine wouldn't last the 15 mins. Thats the angle i'm coming from...

Sorry to be a pain, but i've never actually viewed a working rocker shaft without rocker covers. I am keeping my engine running to an absolute minimum until i know whats happening.

Also, i don't see the point in using the screwdriver-bit-in-the-dizzy-hole method when i can just crank the engine without a HT lead on the coil.