Piston slap noise?

[carpyblue]

Piston slap? How common is that in a EA82 motor?  I have a 1988 Subaru with a knocking noise. It goes away after the engine is warmed up.

[Len Dawg]

If it's intermittent ticking tapping comes and goes, we all have it, TOD Tick of Death. If it truly goes away after warm up and does not come back until the next warm up then I would say probably could be... but highly doubtful. 

[DaveT]

I never had piston slap.  Haven't seen many if any mentions of it regarding EA82s.  Common is lifter tick .  Rod knock if suffered oil starvation or severely overheated.   That usually doesn't go away on warm up.

Lifter tick may fade with temperature,  can also be pretty random.

[rickyhils]

Len Dawg. Many have pointed to HLA hydraulic lifter that don't "pump up" all of the time. You will always hear it come and go at various times, and the experts say it is not necessarily any symptom of an underlying problem. My own experience has been this-  When warmed up and idling and the "tick- tick - tick-" is steady, turn ignition off and then restart immediately. That ticking will be gone completely upon startup, as if it never was there. That will confirm that engine is OK, except for that HLA lifter design flaw. Years ago I had some HAL lifters out and cleaned them thoroughly and had them "pump up" just fine under test. After I put them back into the cam towers and ran the engine for a while, that same "tick" would still come back. I have EA82 with 323,000 miles in it. Some rough idling issues but oil pressure still there and still using10w-30 oil. Just keep a check on the oil level and the engine cooling system and you will have an engine that will run for a long time.