Loyale Startup Tapping

[chuckdet]

I know this has been covered a bit from reading the archives, I just want to see if I can get some guidance on a plan to follow to try and fix this problem I am now having.

 

When I start my car in the morning, the oil pressure goes to over 45lb, and it sounds fine, then after about 30 seconds I start hear a tap and then the tap gets real loud. This continues until the oil warms up and the pressure drops to around 20lbs or so and then the noise goes away and the car runs great. I currently have Mobil 1 5w 30 in it and I havent tried any fix for this at all. This just started out of the blue and seems to be getting worse. What would be the best plan for a fix for this?

 

Chuck

91 Loyale 4wd Sedan

[asavage]

This is pretty much exactly the problem I repaired in my '93 Loyale 4WD 3AT last week.

 

http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3517

 

I found these things:

 

* I had the infamous oil pump gasket damage problem (see pics in thread above).

 

* I had the infamous camcase o-ring leakage problem (see Cameron's post on this at http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~camncath/ea82_hydraulic_lifter_fix.htm)

 

* While the camcase was apart, I removed, disassembled, and thoroughly cleaned all the lifters on that side of the engine.

 

And, after fixing those two problems, I still had a noisy morning lifter, not right when started up, but after about 15 seconds, and remaining for several minutes.

 

My fix was to take the camcase off again and replace all four lifters on that side of the engine. Has not made a peep since then (a week later), driving it every day.

 

The oil pump install kit (includes that failing gasket, plus a large-ish o-ring and shaft seal) was about $15. The camcase does not have a formal gasket, you squirt your own (ie RTV) but requires a lot of clareful cleaning to do a good job. The o-ring is a trivial cost, once you've gotten that far, less than 0.50 . The lifters can run you quite a bit, I bought mine at cost from NAPA and paid $28 ea; retail is about $40 ea. All I can say is, I tried to cheap out and not replace the lifters the first time I had it apart, and had to do that job over again (took me three hours the 2nd time).

 

Because you have to remove the camshafts timing belts to do the oil pump reseal job, consider replacing them at that time. And, look hard at the water pump: all the labor to do the timing belts is duplicated to replace the water pump.

 

I also had two (out of three) noisy cam belt tensioners, which I replaced -- you can replace the bearing only, on the driver's side cam belt idler, and save some money that way, but the two moveable tensioners must be replaced as assys. They are not awful to buy, but not give-away, either.

 

[A lift is a very good thing, when doing this job, or timing belts! But you can substitute more time and a strong/flexible back. It was the back I lacked, so I borrowed a car lift.]

 

I might replace the camcase o-ring on the driver's side someday, as I have an external oil leak from that area, but at least I don't have to listen to all that clatter in the AM anymore!

 

HTH