Hey all,

I know the clicky valve issue is a dead horse with lots and lots and treads started. I have looked at a few treads and see that most people recommend keeping your oil changed and adding a quart of Marvel mystery oil at one of the change intervals. I have clicky valves when cold on my '87 and it always goes away and sounds just fine after warm-up. I have put 14K on the car and change oil every 3K. The engine runs good and the oil stays clean between changes. I have added additives to engines that were about to die, and they have never improved anything. I will not add additives to this nice solid running engine. So I'm looking through my Chilton's manual under valve adjustment and see that the recommended tolerance in .014". I still drive air-cooled VW's (mostly my sooby lately). My bug has a bad valve seat on one of the cylinders and the valve gets "tight" every 500 miles or so. I'm limping it buy by setting my valve lash at .010" (.006" is factory). I say this because the clicking on my tin covered head on my bug is considerably quieter than my cold clicking Subaru. So am thinking that possibly the valve lash on the Subaru is now more than .014", possibly lots more. It therefore takes a long time for the oiling system to fill-up those "thingy madoos" Subaru uses for lifters between the cam and rockers. Has anyone eliminated the cold engine valve clicking by adjusting their valves to factory specs? It's just a thought. I've had my valve covers off to fix leaks, it looks like a fairly simple task to adjust them (don't know why I haven’t yet?).

 

Thanks, Zorrro:cool:

There is no valve adjustment for EA82's. The hydraulic lifters are there in place of adjusters.

 

GD

I have owned and own VWs as well. In particular, the 5 cylinder Audis ( 4k, 5k, ) and VWs ( Eurovan ) had notorious valve noise issues as did the 1.8 in the MK1 GTI. These all had hydraulic lifters I think.

 

Having spoken to many of the VW illuminati over the years about this issue, the general consensus is that the valves tap due to lifters being old and worn and not holding enough pressure, or by sludge or gunk sticking the lifters and not allowing them to operate properly. Most notably, an old timer who was a no bs guy and specialized in VW for about 40 years told me to try this approach as it works 50% of the time:

 

I was told to run some of the marvel mystery oil in there for 15-20 minutes at idle with a warm engine. Also, some of the popular motor flush products. You are not driving, just idling and letting that stuff work around in there and dissolve the posible deposits.

 

Then, after you are satisfied, you drain and change the oil and put in fresh stuff. You are not continuously running an additive, you are trying to break up deposits, then flushing them out.

 

I tried this approach on my 87 VW Quantum that had horrible lifter tapping and it resulted in probably IMHO a 50% improvement.

 

Certainly worth a try and you will do no harm.

 

Also, a number of the VW guys have told me to run a smidge heavier oil and you may see improvement in valve lifter noise. I tried this in my 83 VW Pickup and found it to work.

 

Likely, though, too, that the hydraulic lifters just need replaced to quit down.

 

I'm sure a Soob would have similar issues and responses as the VWs in this case.

 

Matt

oil pump seals

If it only does it when cold, you might be running too thick of a grade of oil. GD is correct, there is no valve adjustment for hydraulic lash adjusters.

my xt-6 used to do the same thing all you do is add 1 quart of marvel during the oil change and it will be gone in a week it worked great

It does sound like too thick of oil. Especially if it goes away when it warms up.