Lifter tick

[SubaruWagon87]

I drove to the store yesterday, and when I paused my music, I heard a ticking. I knew what it was immediately, tick of death, so I shut my car off and checked the oil, only to discover that I was about a quart and a half low on oil. Rather than pay the $4 a quart that the store wanted, I drove to work (not even a mile) and payed $4 for 2 quarts (+1 for working at a shop!). After work I added the oil, and the tick is still there. Is there any cheap/easy solution? Or can I just leave it alone and will it be ok? Btw, its an spfi ea82, and I put about 350 miles a week on it.

[subaruguru]

i hear that if you use some ATF mixe it with your oil it should break them lose

 

PS. what you doin today??

[SubaruWagon87]

How much atf should I put in?

[Turbone]

Give the lifters a little time to pump back up before using the ATF. Once its warmed up to operating temp, rev the engine to 3k for 15/30sec and see if the tick goes away.

If it comes down to using the ATF, you need to drain a qt of oil and add a qt of ATF. Run it for a couple hundred miles, or until the tick goes away.

[Andy FitzGibbon]

Sometimes the ATF helps and sometimes it will make it worse, depending on what it breaks loose. It will sometimes remove gunk from around worn seals and they then don't seal as well as they were before the ATF, so air sucks into the oil and the ticking gets worse.

Andy

[SubaruWagon87]

I tried atf earlier today, I dumped in about a quarter quart, and the tick went away when I hit the freeway, but as soon as I was back in town, it was back. I might try the draining a quart/adding atf method. But if it won't cause any damage in the long run, I'm not too worried about it.

[Turbone]

What grade and brand of oil are you using? I use Castrol only and have 10-40 in the turbo's and 20-40 in the NA's.

Another and better oil additive would be MMO. It helps condition internals a little better than ATF.

[SubaruWagon87]

The shop I work at is a napa autocare center, so we always use napa's (I think its valvoline) oil. I use 10-30 and a can of engine restore.

[idosubaru]

if the noise is new the very first thing to do is change your oil and filter. that is always step one, particularly if your oil is low. the idea of just adding oil every time it gets low is not a good replacement for changing your oil.

 

always keep in mind that not only do you have a very sensitive valve train because of the HLA's, that you're not paying (or hearing) to have your valves adjusted. so it's a give and take thing. yeah HLA's are more sensitive, but you don't have to (can not) adjust your valves. but what this means is that frequent oil changes are your friend and will keep your HLA's clean and quiet and from sticking. change your oil often.

 

often times the oil pump needs resealed and ATF or seafoam may help. the oil pump seals and ATF adding treat/solve two different problems, they do not work all the time in every situation, each one specifically addresses a different issue eventhough what you hear is the same TIC,TIC,TIC,TIC!!!!