wow my car sounds like a sewing machine?

[xtrempickup]

Well started my car today and pulled out and went around the block and i am listening, " wow that sounds loud, what the heck is that?.... Tat , Tat, Tat, TAT, TAT, TAT. well that prompted me back to by driveway to open the hood. Lifter is tapping away. so i shut it down and i pull the valve covers to see what it looks like in there. I think its surely on the exhaust bank as i can feel it and it seems to quite when i put my hand to the cover when its running. Nothing looked off, all the black caps on the lifters were still in place. I shined my flash light on the lobes to see if there was any abnormal wear or scoring, nothing there. I put the cover back on and check the intake side. everything looks normal, maybe a slight line on the one lobe toward the driver side of the car, doesnt look like the set of cams that came out of my spare head, that had some nasty scoring on it. There is plenty oil in there, my car always shows good oil pressure and I run 10W30 synthetic all the time. I had it once do this after sitting about a week, but it quieted right down, this doesnt seem to be doing that, just tapps away loudly. I have new lifters sitting here, should I replace them? is a big deal to drive on it? any opinions, i know these cars dont have the quietest drivetrains, this one was not bad, but now id swear there is a singer sewing machine under my hood, and yes the tap speeds up with RPM.

[92spiritrt]

if you have a set sitting there it wouldn't hurt to replace them. my car was like that when i bought it. i took the valve covers off and found that on the exhaust side the two on the #4 cylinder were compressed all the way so the lifter could be moved almost a 1/2" by hand. the seals on them could have gone bad and they aren't pumping up with oil like they are supposed to. let us know what happens.

[bansheenut420]

I would check for some lifters that are not pumping up. I had a couple that were like that, replaced them all with the gen3 lifters, and my valvetrain is almost silent.

[Adam]

Put them mo fo's in! Scores on the cam? I always thought the t3 had roller followers... I guess I wouldnt know never had one.

[Adam]

Also for what its worth a bad lash adjuster will be either collapsed or springy when you pull it, good ones sould not be springy at all.

[xtrempickup]

fixed, 1 shot lifter, 1 suspect missing black plastic cap, but still good changed anyways. Primed and started, all good. still have a lousy one in the intake side but its been noisy as long as i have owned it, no more noise that i can hear while i drive which is good. used some good used ones not to break my set up yet until i replace eveything soup to nuts in this head

[bansheenut420]

Glad you found the problem.